Then and Now and Forever
by britfan1
Summary: *Chaps 4&5 up!!* Lizzie, Gordo, Miranda and Kate are reminded just how close they used to be when, near the end of their Sophomore year at Hillridge High School, Lizzie is involved in a near tragic accident. *PLEASE READ AND REVIEW*
1. Just WHAT is going on here?

Okay, first, I don't own any of the characters from Lizzie McGuire, nor do I know any of the cast, much as I wish I did. The characters of Kendall Saunders and those in the Atlantis Fire Department are of my own creation. I also wish I could lay claim to the pairings in the story, but Sweetwater Gal came up with them first. The pairing of Tudge and Miranda is only logical, when you think about it. It worked, she made them real. I just hope my fanfics are a quarter as good as hers are. So, here it is. Hope everyone enjoys it.

Then and Now and Forever

Prologue

Kate Saunders dumped the dregs of the Hillridge High cafeteria's very loose definition of 'Lunch' into the trash then slid the two beige plastic trays, one atop the other, onto the metal roller conveyer leading into the deepest, darkest reaches of HHS's kitchen. Her hair spun and twirled, picking up sun-glitzed highlights, as she did a quick half turn and gave her boyfriend a very unconvincing look of disgust. The corners of her mouth kept tilting up, totally ruining the effect

_ "Excuse me..." She said to him lightly. "...But isn't this supposed to work the __other way around? As in, aren't you supposed to be the one taking __my tray up?"_

. Ethan Craft just looked at her sheepishly as he navigated HHS's packed cafeteria on a pair of aluminum crutches, his right leg encased in a cast emblazoned with a variety of colorful logos and inscriptions.

 "Kate, he had to do _something to get you to do a little work." David Gordon, 'Gordo' to his friends, told her with a mischievously cheerful glint in his eyes. Kate just rolled her eyes at him and shook her head as she gave the just-deposited trays a healthy shove. Metal rollers clattered as she said 'Yeah, but really! Don't you think trying to cross the finish line of a motocross __before your bike  ..." She turned towards the rest of the group, giving them a crooked smirk, her turned-up nose crinkling prettily as she squinted and held the thumb and forefinger of her right hand about a millimeter apart. "...is just a __bit much?"_

"It DOES show dedication, perseverance, the will to succeed..." Gordo continued 

"Stupidity?"   Pretty, blond Lizzie McGuire asked rhetorically, her hazel eyes dancing as she spoke. 

"There's that..." Gordo nodded as he slid his and Lizzie's trays onto the conveyer to join Kate and Ethan's.

"Uhhh...Guys?  Don't I get to say _something in my defense?" Ethan asked them with a jokingly pleading whine. _

"No!" All but simultaneously from Kate and Lizzie. 

"You'd've been out spending money on me, like boyfriends are supposed to..." Kate nodded towards Ethan's crutches. "You wouldn't be on those things."

You tell him, Kate!" Lizzie added, grinning broadly. 

"Two of 'em together..." Gordo looked up and over at Ethan, pursing his lips and slowly shaking his head. "They gang up on us; we don't stand a chance..." 

Lizzie rewarded Gordo's sage and learned comment with a playful slap across the belly, chirping "Did I say talk?" as she squeezed his arm, which she was hanging on to tightly, and giggled one of those little wind chime giggles that tend to happen when the giggle's perpetrator is in love. She then looked over at Kate"; saying, "I only allow him to speak without permission twice a day..." as she squeezed his arm even more tightly and laid her head on Gordo's shoulder.

"Yeah, right" Gordo told her with psuedo-gruff cheerfulness. Lizzie turned her head to look at him...not a difficult task, as her beloved was actually about a quarter inch shorter than she was. Her nose crinkled adorably for an instant as another little smile lit up her face.

"Oh you're _good to him, Liz. I only let __it" She jerked her head towards Ethan__ "speak maybe once a week..." She said, then turned to Ethan, gave him a little grin,  inclining her head and puckering up for the quick lip-peck that he was more than happy to give her. "Unless of course he's giving me compliments..." She continued, still looking up and into Ethan's eyes. Or at the moment into Ethan's left ear, as he had turned his head to look at Lizzie and Gordo, slowly shaking is head from side to side."Ah, hello? Remember me? Am I __that forgettable?"  _

Ethan looked back around at Kate, grinning the crooked grin that had turned girls to butter since time began, and jerked his head towards Lizzie and Gordo and said "You're never forgettable, ever, and they're not listening to you right now..."  Kate heard another chirpy little twitter and turned just in time to see Lizzie's little smile widen into a grin as she did the little nose-crinkle thing again, then planted a quick affectionate kiss on Gordo's lips.

"Yo...guys...uh, we're, sorta holding up traffic here..." Ethan told them, looking back and nodding towards the line of tray-bearing students stacking up behind them. Lizzie snapped out of her momentary daze, glanced behind them, giggled another little bell-tinkle giggle, and said 'oops...sorry guys...' before yanking Gordo along by the arm. He switched his arm downward, cupping Lizzie's waist with his left hand and pulling her in close to him even as her right arm went around his waist in a similar fashion. 

"Speaking of your little adventure, Ethan, how's your leg?" Gordo asked as the two couples made their way through the conversation tumble and restrained chaos that was HHS's 'C' lunch period.

 "It just  itches like crazy under this cast..." Kate stepped sideways, letting Ethan expertly sidestep a backpack that had been placed next one of the cafeteria's picnic tables by one of its occupants. "Doc say's its healing ok, and I should have the cast off before Thanksgiving. At least this..." He rested his weight on the right crutch for a second as he held his right hand up. "Was just a sprain..."

"Shoulda seen him when he first got the crutches _and had a cast on his wrist...poor thing..." She shook her head. "I almost had to carry him around..."_

Ow...come to think of it, this wrist _does..."_

"Don't even try it, Craft..."  Kate told her boyfriend affectionately

Gordo pursed his lips, rubbing his chin with his free hand. "Thanksgiving with only _one free hand...noooo,__ not fun..."_

"You'd manage..." Lizzie told him, looking over at him. Her eyes were dancing with mirthful mischief. "One way or the other, you'd manage. Turkeys quiver in terror at the mere mention of your name..."

"Uh huh..."

"_Thousands of pecan pies have died by your hand..."_

"Only hundreds..."

"Whatever...no mere _mortal can match you at Thanksgiving Dinner, or indeed, __any dinner..."_

"So I enjoy a good meal..."

"And Rice Pudding of _seriously questionable origin..."_

"It wasn't bad...Ok, it wasn't _that bad"_

"Gordo..." Lizzie tilted her head, one eyebrow inclining at a giddy angle. "Miranda and I had to _drag you away from it"_

 "Speaking of 'Rand, where'd she disappear to?" Kate asked, sounding and looking puzzled. 

"Good question...I've been wondering the same thing..." Lizzie replied, her face also knotting up in puzzlement. "I saw her right before first lunch, she and Tudge were gonna sneak over to Mickey Dees, and grab lunch..." 

"Real nice..." Kate noted. "Leave us to suffer horrible fates at the hands of what ever it is we just ate..."

"Ever tried to eat a Big Mac that's been sitting around for an hour or so?" Gordo asked her. "It actually starts going through chemical changes..."

"EEEEWW..." Kate replied. 

Lizzie glanced at the inevitable Seth-Thomas wall clock set high in the white-painted cinderblock wall of the cafeteria. "Actually, I'm getting kinda worried... that's been an hour ago..."  Lizzie's word s popped all three of her friends with the same little pinprick of worry that she felt when she looked at the clock and realized how long her best friend had been gone. All of them were remembering a morning six months earlier.

 The group exited the cafeteria into the wide asphalt tiled hallway and hung a left  towards the front of the building. The cafeteria was in the new section of Hillridge High School, built on behind and easily twice the size of the stately, three story original school building. Walls were painted an off white, lockers alternated, colors, alternate banks of ten painted either the gold or Royal blue that were Hillridge's school colors.

 Ethan looked down the long hallway leading towards the main building, his height allowing him to gaze over the heads of most of the lunchtime throng. A sigh of relief escaped as he spotted a familiar head of dark hair, framing a pretty, olive skinned face making her way towards them.

 "Here comes the better looking of that pair now, believe it or not..." He told them as Miranda Sanchez slalom-walked through the lunchtime crush, gold pleated blue skirt swishing as she gracefully made her way towards them. Miranda's face lit up with a smile that gleamed at them like a bank of floodlights.

 "Hey, guys, hold up..."

Lizzie and Kate both turned their heads to glare at her in mock-anger. "And where have you been, young lady?" Kate asked.

"Cutting class _again...told 'em they shouldn't have given us different lunch periods..." Lizzie noted, shaking her head. "Now there's __no one around to keep her in line..."_

 Miranda tilted her head, big brown eyes going huge for an instant. "You guys didn't hear?"

"Nooo...see, if we'd _heard, we wouldn't be asking..." Lizzie told her, mischievous little smirk on her face as she waited for what__ever new mischief her long time best friend had up her sleeve._

"You an' Tudge finally snuck off an' got married...over lunch no less..." Gordo announced, wearing that deadpan expression that caused his best friends, on many occasions, to  wonder whether he was being serious, or seriously pulling their legs.

"Ohhhh..."  Kate clasped her hands beneath her chin, batted her eyes in exaggerated fashion, then announced ".._How romantic..." She then looked over at her boyfriend, and noted, deadpan "__You never eloped with __me over lunch." Both of the guys just looked at each other, shaking their heads. Miranda looked back and forth between Kate and Lizzie, rolled her eyes, then stood hip-canted, fists resting on her hips_

"Nooooo..." She told her friends. "Some idiot with a cell phone growing out of his ear hit us in the back end while we were waiting to turn into MacDonald's..."

All of them waited for the punch line, faces slowly going serious as they realized there _wasn't a punch line. Lizzie was the first to speak._

"Oh ma _God, 'Rand, are you guys __ok?" Lizzie blurted, wide eyed. Gordo turned, looking at her, hands now in his pocket in a gesture that all of them knew meant that what he was about to say __was serious._

"Ok, you look like you're in one piece...where's Larry?..".

"Larry's ok guys, the back bumper an' tailgate of his truck were the only casualties. When last seen, my beloved was standing in the student parking lot, blubbering, making little kitten noises, and staring at the back end of his truck." She tilted her head, resting her chin in the 'V' formed by the outstretched thumb and forefinger of her right hand. She cut her eyes up to the left, looking thoughtful. "In fact, I think he _may have been crying..."_

"I would've been, definitely..." Ethan noted. "He hadn't _had it but three months." He continued, referring to the decked out silver Nissan Frontier 4x4 that had been a belated birthday present and was Larry Tudgeman's second (Miranda often claimed it was his __first) love._

"You guys didn't get _caught did you?" Lizzie's voice climbed the scale to her trademark squeak, her eyes widening at the same time._

"Not yet, anyway. .." Miranda smiled a semi-wicked little smirk. "And if Maguilla..." She continued, using their nickname for Hillridge's assistant principal. "...Takes even one look at that poor, forlorn expression on Larry's face even _he won't be able to do anything to him."_

"Greetings, gang..." A familiar voice hailed them, Miranda looked up, her already pretty face breaking into a one sided little smirk as he boyfriend walked up, almost preppy in a gray Abercombie sweatshirt and a pair of jeans. "Who do anything to _who? Whose forlorn expression?"_

"We're truly sorry for your loss..." Gordo noted deadpan.  Larry Tudgeman ran his right hand through an unruly shock of dark hair, shook his head, and breathed . He took hold of Miranda's hand, interlacing his fingers with hers as they all moved towards the front of the building.

 'Idiot...'least he had insurance... Ran right smack dab into me ,_then__, when 'Rand and I get outa the truck, and get back to him he tells me, and I quote, 'I'm callin' my insurance agent now...'_

Miranda rolled her eyes, then continued the narrative." Asked him if he was gonna call the cops an' he says '_I don't think that's necessary!'  _

"Cops Come?" Gordo asked, even as Lizzie, Kate, and Ethan all three asked some version of '_They say anything about you guys skipping?'_

_"He was cool, just told us to get on back to school, even let me run in and get our lunch while he was takin' the report." Miranda told them. "Though eating a Quarter Pounder while standing in the middle of Hillridge Parkway is __not my idea of a getaway lunch with my boyfriend..."_

""Least yours was still hot..." Larry Tudgeman told his girl, a smile in his voice. He then continued his rendition of events . "Guy that hit me got the ticket, an the cop said he figured when our parents did to us when put two an' two together, it'd be worse than _anything the court could do..."_

"Poor thing...I've corrupted him..." Miranda noted lightly.

Larry just rolled his eyes, continuing without missing a beat. "...which is probably true.  But for now all I  have to do's avoid our sadis...I mean _ esteemed assistant principal for two more periods, and we're home free..." _

"Sounds like a _real fun way to spend lunch, guys...least you two were Ok" Lizzie told them, to have Gordo and Ethan, at almost the same instant, jibe good natured 'That depends on __what you call Ok.s". Miranda reached up and over to pop Gordo playfully on the back of the head, saying 'Only because I wouldn't want to have to get rid of witnesses am I going to let you get by with that...__this time._

They had reached the 'Back Road' as the long hall running the entire length of the new part of the building was known. The six of them formed up into a loose huddle to the side of the hall, awaiting the bell for fifth period, the only class period that _none of them had a class together in. Lizzie looked thoughtful for a second._

Well, that's three, guys..." Lizzie informed them. All five of her friends gave her puzzled looks. 

"Three what, Liz..." Kate asked her, a sheaf of blond hair sliding off of her shoulder as she tilted her head. A sudden look of realization crossed her face, she knew _exactly what Lizzie was talking about._

Lizzie did a little head tilt of her own. A shock of blond bangs swept gracefully downward. 'You know, things happen in threes..." She swept the hair out of her eyes. "Tudge and Miranda today..." She counted off on her fingers. "Ethan last month, and..."

A loud, screeching clang echoed through the halls, repeated further away in the old section of the building as the bell timers kicked in. The halls erupted with teenage energy as 1,862 students all tried to change classes in four minutes. Miranda leaned up, gave Larry a kiss, then said 'Gotta scat guys, see ya later...' before joining the flow of humanity heading up the back road.

Gordo and Lizzie exchanged three quick kisses, each just a little longer and deeper than the one before Gordo said, softly, 'Catch ya next period'. Intertwined fingers slowly unclasped,  both arms outstretched so their hands could touch just a nanosecond longer. The two of them exchanged one of those looks...quick, fleeting actually...that contains enough energy to light up a small city.

"Well...on into the teaming throng..." Larry told him as the spell, the kind which quieted anyone around Lizzie and Gordo into awed silence, broke.

"Something like that..." Gordo agreed, saying 'Bye guys' as he and Tudge disappeared into the mob heading towards the front of the building. The remaining three hung a right, making their way to their respective classes. Kate looked over at Lizzie, something like concern in her eyes.

"You gonna be Ok tonight?" Kate asked her. Lizzie turned her head, dragging a fall of blond hair from her left shoulder. 

"Yeah, Miranda an' I've got it down. I hate to brag but..."She repeated the age-old gesture of blowing on the nails of her right hand ."We're gonna be awesome. Magnificent, actually..."

Kate flashed a smile at Lizzie, one without a trace of malice _or snobbishness "Yeah, you two looked __great at practice yesterday...But I mean are __you ok?" She tilted her head, looking concerned."_

Oh...Yeah., I'll be fine....". They walked past an open classroom door, the rectangle of light falling across the hall, just for a second, highlighting the network of scars, barely visible now, on Lizzie's left leg. She only limped, very slightly, if she stepped wrong, and it had stopped hurting ages ago.

."You _sure? I don't want ya doin' to much too quick..."_

"Kate .I'm _fine..." Lizzie repeated, just the slightest tough of friendly exasperation in her voice even as her friend's concern touched her. "We've been practicing it for a __month an' I haven't had any problem__.  With that thought in mind, you do know you're a slave driver at practice, by the way?"_

"Hmmmm..." Kate looked thoughtful, then smiled the one sided little smirk that her friends had come to know well. "Yeah...I work at it you know..." 

The same rectangle of light brought out the colors in the snappy HHS varsity cheering uniforms the girls were wearing, identical to the one Miranda Sanchez had been wearing save for the gold megaphone with CAPTAIN monogrammed with in, sewed on Kate's uniform just below her right shoulder...

WAIT a minute!!! WHAT is going _on here? Lizzie and Miranda __cheerleaders. Lizzie, Miranda, Gordo and Kate __friends...close friends at that. And what happened to Lizzie's leg? WHAT is going __on here?_

It's simple. See, Lizzie and Kate were _always friends. And, at one time, it was Lizzie, Miranda, Gordo, and __Kate. She had been the lighthearted wise-cracker of the bunch then, just as she was now. _

Then she went off to camp that fateful summer, and everything changed between her and her three best friends. Notice I didn't say _former best friends. 'Cause the kind of friendship the four of them once had is really hard to totally destroy. You can bend it break it, twist it, and even damage it beyond recognition. But when it's a friendship like this one, you __can't totally destroy it._

The four of them had just _forgotten they were friends_

They just needed a little reminder. And when they _finally got that reminder..._

Well, let's just go back six months.

It _started the day before IT happened. In this exact same hallway..._


	2. The differance between cute and pretty

Chapter 1

The Difference between Cute and Pretty

A/N an' Disclaimers: As always, I don't own any rights to Lizzie McGuire, nor to I Own any rights to 'Crazy' by Britney Spears. Tanya Kuene is a character of my own creation.

The events in this chapter occur six months prior to the events in the prologue, almost to the day, towards the end of their sophomore year, 

 This one and Chapter two (Which was going to be part of Chapter one, but I decided it would be too long) are the 'set up' chapters, I tried to make them interesting and readable.  

Six Months Earlier...April 16

"Explain to me again, McGuire..." Gordo enquired between bites of an Egg McMuffin. "Exactly why we're awake, dressed, and on the way to school aaaat..." He gave the stereo's digital clock a long, exaggerated, squint-eyed glance "...Eight minutes to _seven..."  He then reached for his large coke, taking a long drag through his straw as he awaited a reply._

"Think it could be because she promised to feed you?" Miranda Sanchez asked lightly from the back seat of Lizzie's passed down Jeep Grand Cherokee, where she was slouched down comfortably in a funky lavender, purple and white top and a pair of jeans. She finished off a chicken biscuit, washing it down with a swallow of her own drink.

"Ok, that's one reason..." Gordo agreed, glancing back at the pretty, dark haired girl, who had been one of his best friends since a year or so before the beginning of time.

"...And, beings you were far too busy stuffing your face to say it yourself...Thank you for feeding us. Lizzie..." Miranda continued cheerfully.

"My enthusiasm should be thanks enough..." Gordo replied, to be met with near-simultaneous eye rolls from both girls.

"Hey..." Lizzie chirped from behind the SUV's wheel as she angled into the left turn lane at Hillridge Parkway and Hillridge Place and eased to a stop at the light. "What about the warm, fuzzy feeling you get from helping you fellow man, an' all..."

"Fellow _man..." Gordo noted, looking adoringly at his long time best friend and girlfriend of about six months. "...Is __not exactly the term I'd use." _

 Lizzie's outfit was _not exactly standard issue for a school day. Brief white track shorts and a white tube top beneath a dark blue tank top with "Clearly Fabulous' emblazoned there on, while more than likely greatly appreciated by the male contingent of the Hillridge High School student body, and __definitely appreciated by one David 'Gordo' Gordon, would __not cut it in the long haul with the school administration._

"Oh..." Lizzie turned to face him, an impish and mischievous smirk on her face, her hazel eyes dancing with merriment. "And exactly what term _would you use..."_

"Let's seeee..." Gordo squinted, rubbing his chin with the thumb of his right hand. "...Creature came to mind...then there's apparition..." She stuck her tongue out at him,  giggled, and crinkled her nose, bouncing a spatter of freckles around adorably, a gesture that had just about the same effect on Gordo's heart that a blow torch would have on a stick of butter..

"Ah, guys..." From the back seat. "Lizzie? Light..."

"Huh..." Lizzie snapped her head back around and saw the turn arrow that was now glowing green at her. "Oops..." She chortled at the same time pulling off and swinging left onto Hillridge Place. "We got everything?" She asked Gordo and Miranda.

"Yes, dear..." Gordo replied, deadpan. "Battery's charged, it's got a blank tape in it..." He twisted around to see Miranda hold up a set of Pom-poms, somewhat worse for the wear, from her little league cheering days. "...'Rand has the pom poms..."

"Know how long it took me to _find these things...Our attic should be declared a major archeological dig..." Miranda threw in as Lizzie hung yet another left into the HHS student parking lot._

"Sounds like Matt's room..." Lizzie noted as they rolled across the nearly empty expanse of asphalt. "There could be entire civilizations buried under all the junk..."

"Like yours is a pinnacle of neatness..." From Miranda.

"I can put my hands on everything I need...Lizzie countered cheerfully, to be met with 'Uh huh' from Miranda and '_Right, McGuire' from Gordo. Lizzie cut a large 'C' in the parking lot, aiming for her assigned parking space. Ahead, and then to their right as they turned, the early morning sun painted the school's brick work and white painted trim orange, kicking back fireballs from the building's dozens of windows._

Hillridge High was an architectural gem. The three story main building, with it's ornate millwork, picturesque clock tower, and steeply pitched, multi-dormered slate roof topped by an octagonal cupola, had actually been featured, twice, on the cover of Alexandria Drafting's 'Metro Atlantis and Vicinity' map book.

The sun popped up high enough to turn the windows in the cupola orange against a cloudless blue sky. Lizzie just shook her head, saying "Man I wish we weren't stuck in school today...it's gonna be gorgeous..."

"Enjoy it, supposed to rain tonight..." Gordo told them matter of factly as Lizzie pulled into her space.

"Jus' so it leaves the weekend be..." From the back seat, to be answered by 'Amen to that' from Lizzie as she threw it into park, stepped down on the parking brake, and shut down. "Let's bail, guys..." Lizzie told them as she unbuckled her seat belt, and opened her door. "Coach Lee told me I could have the auxiliary gym for thirty minutes, an I gotta get a shower an' change before homeroom."

"Sure the gym's unlocked?" Gordo asked his girlfriend as they climbed from the autumn mist gold Grand Cherokee.

"Mmmm-hmmmm" Lizzie nodded as she stuck the key in the liftgate's latch. "She promised me she'd unlock both the gym _and the auxiliary gym..." Lizzie reached in and pulled out a Pac Sun backpack containing her books and her school clothes. Gordo dragged a big, black and silver Sony boom box  out and handed it to Miranda, then reached back in to drag a Halliburton camera case containing a professional grade video camera out, saying 'Ya know Liz, we could __almost do this in the parking lot..."_

Yeah, but I wanted to do it in the auxiliary gym because that's where tryouts are gonna be, that way I know how much room an' stuff I'll have..."

"Oh Ma GOD, what are _they doin' here already?!"  Miranda snarled from behind them, contempt dripping from her voice and splattering on the blacktop like raindrops._

"What are wh...? Oh, _crap!" Lizzie exclaimed as she followed Miranda's gaze and spotted a pearl white Chrysler Sebring convertible with the top up flanked by a smoke gray, two year old BMW 328I drop-top, and a bright blue Mitsubishi Eclipse, all parked hard by the courtyard entrance, near the gym, nowhere near their assigned spaces. Lizzie shot the three cars looks that, by all rights, should have turned their gas tanks into fireballs. "Apparently the entire coven...or craven...or hoven...or what __ever a group of witches calls themselves is here..."_

"How wonderful for us..." Miranda noted, her words heavy with sarcasm, as the three of them started walking towards the same entrance that Kate Saunders and two of her lieutenants in attitude, Claire Miller and Tanya Kuene, had obviously used.

"So, I wonder just what possessed the entire unholy alliance to drag themselves out of bed even before _we did...?"_

"Who know..." Lizzie's eyes snapped open wide with sudden realization. "Oh, _crap, guys, come on!"  She exclaimed, suddenly switching directions and breaking into a run towards the double smoked glass doors on this end of the long hallway known as the 'Back Road', the soles of her Sketchers slapping asphalt._

"What!" Miranda asked, breaking into a run to keep up with her best friend. Gordo also kicked it into high gear, saying 'Yeah, McGuire, let us in..."

"She's trying to get the sign-up sheets down before anyone else, meaning yours truly, can sign up..." Lizzie informed them, then said, almost to herself, 'Hope this door's unlocked..." as they hopped over the low curb fronting the parking lot, crossed the sidewalk, angled across a manicured patch of  lawn and ran up to the entrance. Gordo grabbed one door and Miranda the other, yanking them open so hard they banged hard against their stops, bouncing closed behind them as they ran inside the building. Lizzie leaned  down just long enough to let the straps of her back pack go, sending it to bounce, then slide down the hallway as she picked up speed, shoes smacking asphalt tiles like snare-drum beats, blond hair bouncing and trailing behind her. Behind her Gordo and Miranda just looked at each other as Gordo, closest to the abandoned backpack, scooped it up by the straps. Lizzie place-jogged just long enough to glance at a bulletin board as she passed it, chirped a fairly dirty word, then _really kicked in the afterburners._

 Gordo and Miranda, loaded down as they were, had given up all attempts to keep up with Lizzie, instead falling into a quick jog. They heard another familiar voice yelp something unintelligible, and had the exact same thought at the exact same instant. Kate, Claire, and Tonya had heard the doors slam open, then Lizzie running and one of them had ducked into an open classroom fronting the parking lot and seen Lizzie's Grand Cherokee. And clear as a bell, both heard Kate Saunders yell 'Anyone get the one next to the 'Back Road', then two less than audible replies, then Kate scream an angry '_Claire!!', then __another less than charitable word, and more quick foot falls as the three cheerleaders  broke into an unseen run themselves_

Lizzie managed the near impossible, and picked up even _more speed, her legs all but blurs. She was a good hundred feet ahead of her two best friends by now, and pulling away like a dragster. The cafeteria hall crossed the 'Back road' maybe thirty feet ahead of her, and she'd almost reached it when Kate, Claire, and Tanya __all crossed at a dead run, and both Gordo __and Miranda saw the venomous look Kate shot Lizzie, even from here._

"Don't even _think about it Kate!!" They heard Lizzie yell, just an instant before she leaned into the turn, disappearing around the corner._

"We better get up there..." Miranda noted, and _she broke into a run, cradling the boom box like a newborn, the orange and white pom poms bouncing and swaying and swinging in front of her.._

"Give it, Kate!" They heard Lizzie yell, her words bouncing and echoing through the empty halls.

Gordo and Miranda skidded around the corner just in time to see Kate holding the cheering tryout sign-up sheet aloft in her right hand and Claire and Tanya flanking her, arms crossed, like a pop star's bodyguards.

"We don't let little loser girls on _our cheering squad." Kate spat at Lizzie nastily._

"Give it too me, Kate..."

 "Not a chance, _loser!" Kate was a good head taller than Lizzie, putting the precious sheet of paper well out of Lizzie's reach, unless..._

"Like _hell..." Lizzie shot back about a quarter second before she took two back steps, bent her knees, then jumped for it, both arms up and hands outstretched, as if she was going for a last-chance rebound. Kate back stepped, stretching up on her tip-toes, Claire just stood, watching with interest, as if she actually __was watching a closely fought basketball game..._

And Tanya yelled a _really dirty word, turned, reached, and gave Lizzie a hard open handed shove to the chest. Kate's head spun towards Tanya so fast that her long, blond hair twirled, Miranda shot the same word Tanya had yelled __back at her. Lizzie yelped a surprised little 'ERP!., stopped in mid air, then tumbled backwards, arms wind milling as her feet hit the hallway floor and went out from under her, an open mouthed look of shocked rage on her face. Miranda let the pompoms go, allowing them to skitter along the floor, Lizzie breathed out a painful 'Oomph' as she hit the floor on her butt and slid backwards a foot or so. She stopped, right leg flat on the floor, left knee bent, leaning back on her arms, shaking her head and obviously trying to regain the breath that had just gotten knocked out of her._

"Don't you _even do it!!" Miranda yelled as Tanya turned and drew her right leg back. Miranda slid in between her best friend and Tanya, lifting 325 dollars worth of boom box and holding it over her shoulder like a Louisville slugger. "Even __think about it and I'll make your braces look like a chain link fence after an earth quake!!!" _

Tanya glared at Miranda, then down at Lizzie, then at Miranda again. Miranda's lips were pressed thin, her eyes snapping like a pair of downed power lines. "You Ok Liz..." Miranda asked, never taking her eyes off of Tanya.

"Yeah..." She heard Lizzie say from behind her. Gordo shot an evil look at Tanya, then reached down, grabbed both of Lizzie's hands as she reached up, and pulled her to her feet.

Tanya put both hands on her hips, spitting out 'What's _your problem...I was gonna help her u..."_

"Yeah, _right!" Miranda shot back at her. Kate was shooting a look at them, glaring at Miranda, the expression on her face venomous._

 "I think _both of you guys need to calm down...I don't need you getting __me suspended or kicked off the squad..." Kate barked at them, and Miranda thought 'As usual, Kate's biggest concern is __her butt...' as Kate reached up and pulled Tanya back by her shoulder. Mirada finally lowered the boom box, stepped back, and looked over at Lizzie, saying 'Sure you're ok', Lizzie nodded, still obviously a little dazed, then said 'Yeah, 'Rand'... thanks for the back-up.' She then glared daggers at Tanya and said 'You have some __serious issues, Tanya...one of these days someone's gonna beat your..."_

"She came real close about ten seconds ago, and I'd've enjoyed it, believe me..." Miranda interrupted, glaring at Tanya icily.

"What!" Tanya barked, leaning her head forward. "You little nobody, I'da kicked _your..."_

"Cool it, Tanya, she's not worth it..." Claire growled at her, the first words she'd so much as uttered throughout the entire incident. Kate was now standing with her left arm dangling, right hand resting on a cocked hip, the sign-up sheet dangling towards the floor.

"Yeah, loser-girl, none of this would've even happened if it hadn't been for you, so why don't you just go with your loser-friends..."

Lizzie did that head snap, hair swing thing that 16 year old girls have down to an art when they need to show anger." What is your _problem, Kate?"_

"The problem is we don't want fat, ugly..."

"She asked me!" Kate spat at Tanya, cutting her off. Tanya's round, pretty face, already ugly with contempt, knotted up in anger. Her bright blue eyes were narrowed in anger as she shot a look at Kate, the continued to glare at Lizzie, Gordo, and Miranda.

 "The problem is, loser-girl, you're a klutz, you're a loser, and _no one likes you, other than..." She shot Gordo and Miranda her trademark look of disgust. "__These two..."_

"Kate...just _shut up, and give me the sigh up sheet..." Lizzie huffed, glaring defiance at her, again reaching for it. Kate twisted away, the sheet fluttering as it was yanked out of Lizzie's reach. Lizzie again glared at her, then put her hands on her hips and nodded at the sign-up sheet._

 "Correct me if I'm wrong, Kate, but weren't the sign-up sheets supposed to be up until the end of last period today?"

"She's right, Kate..." Gordo informed her, earning himself a homicidal look. "And I know that, according to you at any rate, you are far superior to any and all creatures on this, and any other planet, but don't ya think some inferior type's less than developed brain _might just figure out that the things disappeared seven hours too soon..."_

"They'll just have to deal with it..." She spat back.

"I'd bet Coach Lee would just love to know that...tell me, do you consider her one of us lowlifes, too, 'cause I bet _she doesn't know you're taking them down early..."_

If the look Kate shot Gordo had been a laser, Gordo would have been vaporized, along with a couple of lockers, and several courses of concrete block.

"That sounds like a threat...you becoming a snitch _and a loser...oh, excuse me, they're one and the same..." Kate shot back, All Gordo did is lift an eyebrow in reply. The two of them stared at each other for several seconds before Kate, faltering reluctantly, her eyes still snapping blue fire, turned towards Lizzie, snapping the sign-up sheet as she handed it to her._

 "So go ahead, then! I was _trying to do you a favor, but if you want to humiliate yourself, knock yourself out..." Gordo handed Lizzie a pen, uncapping it for her first, Lizzie turned around and held the sheet against a royal blue locker as she wrote her name on it. "I have final say on who gets on, anyway..."_

"I thought Coach Lee had final say..." Gordo told her  sarcastically

"Officially, unofficially, cute rules..." Kate told them haughtily, Lizzie stage whispered 'Oh give me a break!" then turned and handed the sheet back to Kate, who snatched it out of her hand rudely. "That's why I'm popular, I'm cute...cute people are popular, loser people are.....well, _losers..." Kate continued, at first starting to fold the sheet and put it in her purse. She shot a side-long glance at Gordo, turned, and replaced it on the board._

"That's where you're wrong, Kate..." Gordo told her. "You are _not 'cute."_

"Ex,,, "Kate huffed a disgusted breath "...Ex_cuse me!" She turned to face Gordo, glaring down at him._

"I didn't _say you weren't __pretty...´ Gordo told her in that maddening rational tone that sounded like it should be coming from a forty year old. "I said you weren't __cute."  He nodded at all three of the girls in turn, saying "Oh, __all of you are pretty, but there's a big difference between 'cute' and 'pretty'. All pretty is what you look like...a coral snake's pretty, but I wouldn't want to spend time with one... " _

"Are you comparing us to snakes...?" Claire asked him, one dark eyebrow raised, luminous black hair shifting and fanning against her right shoulder as she tilted her head.

"No Claire, that's just an example, though I can see where some people might make the connection." Miranda told her in that sweet tone that's _anything but sweet. Claire just shot her a look, Gordo didn't miss a beat._

"Cute's the kind of person you are..." He put one arm around Lizzie, then put the other hand on Miranda's shoulder. "If I have to explain it to you..." He continued as Kate's face turned redder with every passing second. "...It's already a lost cause, but I'll tell ya this...either one of these two are cuter than all three of you together will _ever be..."_

Tanya parodied sticking a finger down her throat as Kate huffed 'Give me a _break!"_

"Come on guys, we gotta go..." Lizzie told Miranda and Gordo, the three of them collected their stuff, Miranda and Lizzie shooting death-stares at the three cheerleaders as the passed, and moved towards the gym, in the rear of the building. Kate stood there, simmering slowly, her face scarlet with rage, for several seconds, until Claire said 'Are you gonna let them get _by with that?!' _

"Hell no, I'm not!" She snapped, then spun around, her hair twirling. "Lizzie McGuire!!" Lizzie turned as Kate yelled her name. then stood, weight on her left leg. She tilted her head, and raised both eyebrows, her lips formed a little bow as she pursed them. "You can sign up all you want to! Sign up on _all of them! It doesn't mean anything. Talk about not understanding! What __you don't understand is just how much I __really despise you!_

Just for an instant...so quick that Kate would wonder for ages whether she actually saw it... the cold glare in Lizzie's hazel eyes became a glimmer of hurt. She could've sworn she saw her lip tremble. But for just an instant. Lizzie snapped her head and rolled her eyes, and huffed, 'I don't have time for your dramatics, Kate', said it in a way that almost made it seem she had thought it out loud. And Kate _knew __she felt a tiny, tiny pinprick, from a long ago memory, so tiny she all but ignored it._

"Loser!..." She huffed, all three of her friends nodded and spoke agreement. "Come on, let's put these others back on the bulletin boards before snitch-boy turns us in." Kate huffed as the three cheerleaders started in the same direction as Lizzie and her crew. They saw them turn the corner at the far end of the hall, beyond the cafeteria, where this hall 'T'ed into the gym-auditorium hall, just short of where that hall emptied into the big commons area.  Miranda turned and shot them a look that Kate could read from almost two hundred feet away.

Tanya fired a similar look up the now empty hallway, spitting "I shoulda kicked her..."

"Miranda would've _fed you that boom box..." Claire informed her.. "You should probably thank Kate for breaking it up before __you got broken up..."_

"Hey...I thought you two were my friends..." Tanya exclaimed, sounding a little hurt. Tanya, like her two friends, was dressed expensively, her outfit being black jeans and a top from Express. She was shorter than either of the other girls, but with the same dancer's figure and glow of good health. Her brown hair was wavy, and hung to just past her shoulders. She was round faced, with big blue eyes...bluer even that Kate's...and a small, pouty mouth., A quick spatter of freckles across a rounded little button nose completed the  misleading image of 'sweet girl next door'. Tanya Kuene was about as sweet as a bad lemon

"And that's why we're telling you not to mess with Miranda, shell mop the floor up with you..." Kate noted matter of factly.

"Wonder where they were going anyway..." Claire asked.

Kate...by far the _least air headed of the trio despite the image she often portrayed, rolled her eyes. "Considering the way she was dressed, my bet's she was heading for the gym..." By now they were in front of the cafeteria, Kate turned towards a bulletin board, reached in a hip pocket of her jeans, and pulled out a folded sign up sheet, straightened ir, and replaced it on the bulletin board. "Probably going to practice what ever lame routine she's planning to humiliate herself with tomorrow afternoon," She turned back around, the fluorescents picking out details in her pale rose colored Charlotte Russe top.  "Any luck she'll fall on her butt, or, if I'm real lucky, break a leg or something an' I won't have to deal with her..." Kate mused. Claire nodded agreement. Tanya just said 'Yeah..." in an off-hand way. "I gotta go, I gotta move my car" Tanya exclaimed, then said 'See you later..." as she turned and headed across the Commons area, and towards the courtyard entrance, Kate and Claire both saying 'see ya, Tanya', Claire gave it a few seconds, then looked at Kate, an eyebrow raised in puzzlement._

"Since when's _she a stickler for the parking rules..." Claire asked, to be answered by an off-handed 'probably threatened to take her privileges away' from Kate, who then turned towards Claire._

 "You think she was really gonna kick her"

"Naaaa..." Claire answered, shaking her head. "She just looked like she was."

Kate just pursed her lips, nodding. They could hear the murmur of voices, and the clanging slam of locker doors. Music...Britney Spears' 'Crazy' drifted faintly from the direction of the gym.

"Wanna go humiliate loser girl some more?" Kate asked, snapping back into character.

"This should be hilarious."

"Oh, she pisses me off!" Lizzie huffed, at the same time smacking her backpack down hard onto the auxiliary gym floor, eliciting an explosive 'THWACK!' that echoed throughout the huge, high-ceilinged room. "I mean, who does she think she _is!!"_

"Which one?" Miranda asked from a few feet away, where she was setting up the boom box. As she spoke, she took a copy of  'Britney's CD, 'Oops I Did it Again'  (Rescued from Lizzie's back-pack only minutes before she body-slammed it), and popped the case open.

"Pick one, they're all alike!" Lizzie barked. "And did you _see what that Tanya wench did...!" _

"We had front row seats..." Gordo told her as he readied the video camera so he could tape Lizzie's whirlwind practice session so they could critique it that night 

"I had you back, Liz..."

"You always have..." Lizzie noted with a little smile. "...Thanks again for the back-up, guys..." Lizzie told them as she did some quick stretching exercises. She then  looked up at her two best friends, her eyes wide with incredulity. "The wench was gonna _kick me!"_

 "Na, she wouldn't have, because I _was planning on pounding her. She'd've been able to play CDs with her __teeth..."_

"Ouch..." From Gordo.

"_Then she'd've been able to tickle her tonsils with her right foot...from the inside..."_

"Yeeesh...now _there's a visual image..." Gordo made a face, and gave his head a couple of exaggerated shakes as Lizzie looked at him, and giggled, despite her anger._

"_Alright, my own hit team..." Lizzie exclaimed as Miranda punched a button on the boom box, opening the CD tray._

"Know what's sad..." Miranda asked, looking over towards her best friend as she inserted the CD and closed the tray.

"What's that, 'Rand?"

"There _was a time Kate would've been all __over that little witch  for pushing you like that..."_

"Yeah.." Lizzie agreed, looking distant for a second or so. "That was a loooong time ago, though..." She snapped out of her funk, glancing up at a wall clock." I've got time to go through it a couple of times...ready, guys?"

"Have at it, McGuire..." Gordo told her enthusiastically, holding the camera to his eye.

"Ok..." Lizzie grabbed the pom-poms, and took her start position, legs slightly apart, hands on her hips, pom poms dangling.

Ok..." She looked at Miranda, a serious expression now on her face. "_Hit it..."_

Miranda hit 'PLAY', Gordo hit 'RECORD'...

"BAAAYBEEE...I'M SO INTO YOUUUUU...!"

"EVERY TIME YOU _LOOOOK AT MEEEE..."_

"Oh My God, Kate..." Claire said quietly as the two of them stood at the opening in the folding wall separating the auxiliary gym from the main gym.

"MY HEART IS _JUMPIN  IT'S EASY TO SEEEE!"_

"You can't do a toe spin in Sketchers!" Kate said, her eyes huge, as she watched Lizzie's performance.

"OhOhOH, CRAAAAAZEEEE...I JUST CAN'T SLEEP...!

"Whoa..."

"I'M SO EXITED, I'M IN TOO DEEP"

"Wow..."

"...CRAAAAAZEEEE...BUT IT FEEELS ALRIIIIIGHT..."

"Where'd our little loser-klutz go?"

"BAYBEE, THINKIN OF YA KEEPS ME UP ALL NIGHT!

The two cheerleaders turned and made their way out of the gym, the music fading behind them as they walked into the hallway, which was quickly filling up with teenage humanity, and towards the commons area.

"She was _good Kate..." Claire said, in the same tone of voice a six year old might use if she found out Santa Claus and Dad was indeed one and the same._

"That doesn't change_ anything..." Kate barked at her, then looked over at her." It really doesn't"_

"That was _great, Liz..."_

Still needs a little work, but it's gettin' there..." Lizzie noted as the three of them collected gear and headed out of the auxiliary gym.

_"Getting there?! " Gordo exclaimed, walking over to his girlfriend and encircling her waist with his right arm. "You..." He kissed her on the cheek. "...Were __awesome..."_

Lizzie tilted her head towards him, smiled, pecked him on the lips, giggled, then turned her head, and jerked it in the general direction of the front of he building, saying 'Now all I've got to do is get past the pug-nosed witch an' I've got it made..."

"An' that. McGuire, is whet we're gonna help you do...we're going to meet at your house, after school, right?" Gordo asked her.

"Indeed...Mom's cooking..."

"Ahhh..._more free food." Gordo sighed, a dreamy look on his face. "Life is __good!_

Lizzie and Miranda just shook their heads at him, then Lizzie gave her boyfriend another quick lip-peck, said  "Gotta get changed", and headed for the gym entrance to the girl's locker room. "See you guys in class"

"I could always give you a hand..." Gordo called after her, grinning impishly.

"No, Gordo..." Lizzie giggled at him, turning just before she went in the locker room to return his impish grin, shake her head, giggle again, then disappear through the door.

"Darn..." Gordo mugged comically, snapping his fingers, never vaguely suspecting that, in twenty-four hours, he would have a lump the size of the Goodyear Blimp in his throat as he wondered if he'd ever hear that little giggle he adored so much again.


	3. A Brotherly Lecture During The Calm Befo...

CHAPTER 2

A Brotherly Lecture during the Calm Before The Storm

 As Usual, I don't own any of the Characters of Lizzie McGuire  The character of Kendal Saunders and the other characters are of my own creation

Chapter 2 was originally supposed to be part of Chapter 1, but I thought it would make that chapter too long. I gave Kate a brother who is five years older than she is, and who is a salaried firefighter/paramedic on the rescue unit that responds 'first due' to Hillridge, he...and the Atlantis (The city I've made Hillridge a part of) Fire Department figure prominently in this story. This story is actually a crossover between Lizzie McGuire, and the series of novels that I'm writing, all of which are about the crew of the same rescue unit (Rescue 3) that is featured in the story. Atlantis is a fictional coastal city in Virginia, south of Virginia Beach (I decided we needed another beach resort in the Old Dominion).

This chapter introduces him and starts explaining some things about Kate, and why she's the way she is

*******************************************************************

"You mind telling me just what the hell it is you have against Lizzie...?  Kate's older brother Kenny asked...loudly...from behind his closed bedroom door. Kate rolled her eyes as she pushed a folded pair of 'Diesel' jeans into a blue and gold HHS cheering squad gym bag. Her bangs fluttered in an angry, up-puffed breath as she yanked the gym bag's zipper closed. "...She's nice...hell, Kate, she's one of the sweetest people I know, she..."

"...Doesn't need to be on the cheering squad!" Kate groused hotly, shooting a look of death at her brother's bedroom as she did so. There was a long ten count before either of them spoke, one of those pauses that authors often refer to as 'pregnant'.

"What's the matter, Kate..." Kenny began, speaking in that calm, precise tone that all but drips sarcasm. His door opened, and he stuck his head out, looking around and over towards his sister. "You afraid of the competition, or is she just not nasty enough for you guys..." 

Kate's mouth dropped open in pained surprise as Kenny disappeared back into his room, slamming the door with a sledgehammer meets railroad tie '_thunk!'  She stood and turned, her long hair twirling as she spun, and stalked across the hall, twisting the doorknob and palming the door to Kenny's room open hard enough to bounce it off the wall._

"What exactly do you _mean by that, Kenny?!" Kate all but spat at her brother, who yelped '__Kate!..'  and quickly yanked a pair of navy blue uniform pants all the way up, stuffing the tails of a powder blue shirt in as he did so. 'Can't you at least knock?' he continued as he started buttoning the shirt. As tall as she was, Kate had to look up at him. Kenny Saunders topped out at six-two in his socks; the uniform shoes would add another half inch to that. The expression she was shooting up at him was __not, right__ at that moment,__ overburdened with sisterly adoration._

"You have nothing on my fantasies about Brad Pitt and Ryan Philippe, and I'm waiting...what did you _mean__ 'Not nasty enough....' "She said, then asked, one eyebrow cocking upward above a pretty, tilted blue eye as she spoke._

 "Just what I said, Kate..." Kenny replied,  "You're my sister, I love you more than life itself..._most of the time..." His attention was diverted for a second as he glanced around the room, then looked down at his bed and began searching among the folds of a dark green bedspread. "...Where the heck did I put that thing..."_

Kate gently shook her head and rolled her eyes as her gaze fell on the oak dresser that matched her brothers' bedroom suite. She walked over and picked up an item that was sitting among the change, wallet, and keys scattered across the top of the dresser.

"Looking for this?" She asked, holding it out, her brother said 'Huh?", turned, and took the silver name tag from her, saying 'yeah, thanks' as Kate did the little head-shake number again and mumbled  'an' you call _me an airhead...' in a less than cheerful tone of voice_

Kenny pointedly ignored the comment that, normally, would have won his sister a couple of good-natured barbs. "Like I said, _most of the time..." he continued as he walked to the dresser and, standing in front of the mirror, positioned the name tag above his right pocket, and snapped the pin backs in place with the practiced ease of someone who had performed that chore a few thousand times before. The left shoulder of the shirt he had attached the nametag to sported a round gold and blue Commonwealth of Virginia EMT patch with a PARAMEDIC rocker beneath it. A colorful pentagonal patch showing the Atlantis city seal inside a Maltese cross surrounded by the words ATLANTIS FIRE RESCUE EMS resided on the right shoulder.  "...You go into your diva mode," He continued as he checked himself in the mirror. "Like you've been in all afternoon, and __God, you get on my nerves..."_

"_Diva mode..."_

"Yes, Kate, Diva mode...as in..." He turned towards her and made airborne quotation marks. "...'I am a cheerleader, and everyone loves me and I'm better than everyone else..."  He walked back over to the bed, sat, dragged his black work boots over with his right foot, and started putting them on.

"I'm not like that...." Kate told her brother, quickly averting her eyes.

"Oh, really..?  Then answer my question...why are you so against Lizzie being a cheerleader...we won't even go into 'why do you hate her so much' right now...'

"I don't _hate her..." Kate informed her brother, conveniently forgetting a comment she had made that very morning. A quick flash of the look on Lizzie's face when she said it flickered before her eyes, she gave her head a little shake, quickly banishing it.. "I just...I just don't think she's cheerleader material..."_

"_WHAT..." Kenny looked up from tying one of the boots. "...Pray tell, __is cheerleader material" _

"She's a _dork, Kenny..."  Kate blurted, her voice rising to an indignant squeak on 'Dork', "God, she can't even walk without tripping over herself..." Again, conveniently overlooking a certain routine she had seen Lizzie practicing that morning. "And she hangs around with such __losers..."_

Kenny stood, grabbed a shift bag that was very similar to his sister's gym bag, except for being dark blue, and having the AFD logo on it, from his bed.

"First, the fact that you and your little group of princesses don't like someone does _not automatically make them a dork, as you so elegantly term it...  Kate rolled her eyes and fluttered her banks with an angry exhalation.. "and, as I seem to recall, whether you choose to remember it or not, that little __loser, as you call her, has pulled your fat outa the fire a __few times over the last couple of years..."_

"_Uh!..." Kate tilted her head, giving her brother an open-mouthed look of disbelief_

"When has she ever done anything for me, Kenny..."

Kenny Saunders turned towards his sister, and looked at her goggle eyed. "You have _got to be kidding, Kate... are you __really that ungrateful?"_

"Nooo..."

"You don't remember..." Kenny continued, cutting her off. "...that idiot Claire putting you on _top of a pyramid, and you spraining your wrist when it collapsed...you were lucky as hell that's __all you did, by the way... and her immediately kicking you off of the cheering squad..."_

"She didn't kick me off, Kenny, we weren't but in the seventh grade, she couldn't 'kick me off'...she just ...

"...told you that they didn't need you on the squad if you couldn't cheer, then treated you like crap, ignored you, and generally made _sure you damn well knew she didn't want you around. I guess not wanting you to hang around with them any more and telling you not to sit with them at lunch was out of concern for your well-being." Kenny sniped, huffing a snort of derision. "Y'all's cheering sponsor __really dropped the ball on that one...I do, by the way, seem to remember you crying your eyes out that night..."." Kenny Saunders not only remembered it, he remembered feeling like someone was squeezing his heart in a machinist's vice that evening when he heard his sister sobbing. Kate started to say something; Kenny just held his hand up. "And __who was the little..." More aerial quotes.   "__Loser, as you call her, who invited you to her house, and spent about a week..."_

"It was three days..."

Oh you _do  remember...showing you how to do one handed cartwheels...yeah, you're __right, gotta be __spastic to be able to do that... even though you'd barely spoken a civil word to her for almost a year, so Claire wouldn't have any choice but to let you hang around with her again..."_

"Lizzie did that because Claire was being such a bi..."

"Seems she was taught well, Kate.. 

"_Kenneeee..." Kate whined, not believing what her brother had just said._

 "And let's keep going...Fifteenth birthday party...that, by the way, you told everyone was your fourteenth..." Kate's face turned a delightful shade of red. "Who ended up calling her mom to come get all of Amy's idiot friends out of the house..._knowing she was going to get grounded..." Kenny Saunders had been ready to strangle his cousin that night almost three years ago. He had just been assigned to a station, and was at work, their parents had both been out of town, and Amy had used the occasion to turn Kate's birthday party into __her party...and Kate had been so hurt....  "And who offered to let you go with them to a movie so you'd have a decent birthday...oh, __that's right, they're losers, I guess that wouldn't have been all that great..." _

Kate just glared at him silently.

 "And now for the _real biggie...the statue..."_

"That was an accident..."

"That Lizzie took the blame for..."

"She just did that to make herself look good..." Kate huffed. Kenny glared down at her, giving it another long ten count before he spoke.

"You're a good one to talk!" Kate returned her brother's angry glare.  "She did that, by the way, so the dance wouldn't get canceled..." He snorted; chuckled derisively as he shook his head, then looked back at his younger sister. "...Yeah...that _really sounds like something a ..." Kenny again wrote quotation marks in the air. "...__Loser would do..." Kate had the decency to blush bright red. "Oh, and newsflash...a 'loser' wouldn't have had almost two hundred kids in her back yard that night who showed up because __they were grateful for what she did...and, by the way, because an awful lot of people really __like her..." Kate rolled her eyes at him. "No, don't roll your eyes at me. She has no __clue what a great kid she really is, or how popular she really is. And as for you, Miss Priss.."_

"Don't call me that..."

"You coulda gone and thanked her...but _noooo..."_

_""Kenny, please..."_

"_You, the High Princess of Hillridge, slam her for messing up __your dance..."_

"Alright, alright, already..." Kate told him, holding a hand up. She pushed away from the doorframe, turned, and picked her own gym bag up.

"And who _else have you and the other little princesses declared losers? Gordo? Why, because he isn't impressed to the point of awe with you guys? And I'd be careful, by the way, you guys may end up __working for him one day..."_

"Oh, _please..."_

"Newsflash, Kate, the main goal of high school is _not to show what a cute little social butterfly you are...believe it or not, there's not much call for cheerleaders out in the real world. The fact that you can execute a perfect Russian, or toe spin won't get you far at a job interview..."_

She just glared at him as he continued.

"And Miranda...she is such a sweet kid...what, do you guys have something against _nice..."_

"NO!" Kate blurted. " "

"Ya must, ...and if you want to see a couple of losers, I'd take a long look at that pair you hang around with...what juvenile detention facility did that Tanya chick escape from, anyway?"

"Tanya's Ok..." This time it was Kenny's turn to roll his eyes. "She's just kind of...Intense..."

"Intense...?" Kenny turned, giving Kate one of those sarcastically inquisitive looks featuring near vertical eyebrows. "In_tense...then I guess Al Capone was just ambitious..."_

"She's not..." A sudden and unwelcome image of Tanya's right foot coming back flickered into sharp, mental focus.  "That bad..." Kate didn't sound at all convinced. Her brother picked up on it in a heartbeat.

"Uh huh..." was Kenny's only reply as the two of them walked down the long hallway towards the big rancher's living area.

"And you take up for Miranda...?"

"Yeah, Kate, I do..."

"She can be a total _bitch..."_

"When she's taking up for her friends...I remember, when you guys were in about the forth grade, her beating the snot outa some guy who kept bothering you...that kid that kept calling you 'string bean', and tripping you..."

"That was a _long time ago, things change..." Kate started to say as another unwanted flash of Tanya trying to kick Lizzie...she had been aiming for Lizzie's face...popped into focus. Then a memory of Miranda screaming in with fire in her eyes... Kate squeezed her eyes closed, shaking her head, wondering at the same time if either of her two alleged best friends would have jumped in like that to defend her. _

"You Ok..." Kenny asked her, concerned.

"Yeah, just a long day, an' I gotta stay up an' work on tryouts with Claire till who knows when...little bit of a headache..." Kate lied as the unfinished thought 'Lizzie and Miranda would have...' began to form itself. She quickly banished it.

"You _are a little bit of a headache..." He told her with a burst of loving brotherly malice. Kate, despite her anger, couldn't help but give him a quick smile. She had changed out of the tight top and jeans that Kenny referred to as (among other things) her 'Diva uniform', and was wearing a pair of jeans with a loose fitting red, purple and blue tie dyed 'T' shirt. She didn't have any make-up on (And truth be known, didn't __need any make-up). Her hair was down and loose across her shoulders, and before the night was through, she would probably secure it into a ponytail with the scrungy that was stuffed in one of her pockets. She looked exactly like the sweet, bubbly teenager that she was deathly afraid to let any of her peers know that she actually was. Just as she was deathly, afraid to let them know that she was __indeed a year...almost a year and a half...older then the rest of her class._

Kenny walked to the counter, reached in a bag of Chips Ahoy cookies, and extracted two of them. They disappeared in something under two seconds flat. He caught the look Kate was sending his way, extended the bag towards her and mumbled 'Wrmmnt srmn' through a mouth full of cookies. Kate gently shook her head, rolled her eyes...and took _three cookies from the proffered bag._

"If I wasn't so pissed at you, I'd comment on how much of a pig you are..." Kate commented, taking a bite out of one of the cookies. Her eyes fell on a calendar secured to the side of the refrigerator with a pair of magnets. A night shot of AFD Truck Ten with its tower up and both 750 gpm basket nozzles in service at the Baycove Apartments fire last year graced the 'April' page.  The kind of calendar found in the homes of all paid firefighters...a shift calendar, with the days designated in three separate colors...in this case red, green, and yellow...to designate which shift was on duty on any given day.  Atlantis Firefighters worked one on, one off, one on, one off, one on, then four off, and Kenny was on 'C' shift, designated by the yellow squares. 'C' shift was two days into one of it's four day breaks. Kate's head swiveled towards her brother, the pinched look of hurt anger replaced by a look of puzzlement..

"Wait a minute...This is a _'B' shift day...what are you going in for anyway..?_

"Mike King's on vacation for a week, and I want to make sure I get all of my sticks in this month, so I told 'em I'd take a couple of his shifts...the overtime ain't bad either..."

"Y'all have run your _butts off this month, you an' Adam've gotten a __bunch of good ALS calls..." Kate told him, falling into use of Fire-EMS lingo with the casual ease that comes to almost all kids who live in a fire department household._

"And not one of 'em a trauma call. Every one of 'em medicals." 

"Oh..." Kate noted, then she looked up with a crooked and mischievous smirk on her face. "You and _Gary riding' together...Oh My __GOD..." Kate had secretly crushed on Gary Barnette, who was assigned to 'B' shift on Rescue 3, stationed at Fire Station 28, about eight miles from their house, ever since her brother had gotten his Paramedic certification and been assigned to 'C' shift on the same unit._

  "I'm sure that Ashlie and Pattie..." Kenny began, referring to his and Gary's fiancées "...Will be pacing the apron, shotguns in hand, to fight off the hordes of lust-crazed women intent on defiling our bodies..." Kate rolled her eyes at him, this time in the joking manner of younger sisters about to lovingly slam their older brothers the world over.

"Pattie, maybe...I seriously doubt that Ashlie has _anything to worry about..." Kate noted, deadpan. Her brother reached over and furled her hair, actually getting a quick smile out of her as he headed towards the back door._

"None of the others can handle my blatant and raw masculinity..."

"Oh, PUH-_LEASE..." Kate blurted with comically over exaggerated sarcasm. "It's __really getting deep now..."_

Kenny walked around the counter that separated the big, airy kitchen from the breakfast nook and pushed the back door open, Kate following close behind. All of the family's vehicles were parked on the concrete parking area, Kenny's immaculately waxed and polished silver and black Chevy Silverado pick-up included. Kate's Sebring...equally as well kept as her brother's ride...was next to it.

Damn...you got a jacket or anything in your car..?" Kenny asked his sister as the suddenly chilly air hit them.

"Yeah, my cheering jacket..." Kate replied, looking up as she spoke, her face contorted into the grimace worn by amateur weather forecasters the world over. The crisp blue Old Dominion sky had been chased off by solemn gray clouds that seemed to be flirting with the tree tops. It felt more like late Fall than early spring, and not only was it chilly, it was _damp chilly. Kate could feel the moisture in the air "It's gonna rain, you guys are libel to get wet..." Kate told her brother, looking down and over at him as she spoke._

"Least we won't run any brush fires..." Kenny told her as he walked around to the driver's side of the big 4x4. He opened the driver's door, and tossed the shift bag onto the passenger seat then turned as he dug the keys from his pocket. He turned and looked at Kate, was nibbling on another of the cookies, her gym bag dangling from her left hand. Kenny Saunders adored his little sister, and that's what infuriated him when she entered what he referred to as her Diva mode. Kenny _knew what kind of person Kate really was._

He also knew part of what her problem was, even though she never came out and said it. The reason that his sister was a full year behind everyone, something he blamed himself for. Of course, their dad's comment, something he hadn't meant for his daughter to hear, was the real culprit. Bernard and Adele Saunders were good people...they just didn't have much of a clue about how to be parents...

"They wouldn't care, sis...none of your real friends..." Kate just tilted her head and looked at him.  "You know what I'm talking about. "

"I don't want to talk about it..." she said softly. Kenny just nodded, knowing that trying to talk to her about it was futile. She would open up about it when she was ready, and not before. "Kenny..." She was looking up at him with a look of concern on _her face._

"It wasn't your fault...you weren't but eight..."

And you weren't but three, and I should've made sure you weren't following me when I went out, or at least made sure you weren't on the ice..." He replied. Kate knew she'd never convince him otherwise. 

 I'm sorry I jumped on you like I did, Kate..."  He told her, leaning back against the side of his pick-up for a moment. "But I..." he looked thoughtful for a second. "I just don't want you to become someone you might regret being..."

Kate tilted her head, and gave him a confused grimace. A sheaf of blond hair slid from her right shoulder and became a gold-spun fan

"What do ya mean by that...?" Kate asked her brother.  He pulled one side of his bottom lip beneath his top teeth in a thoughtful grimace, maintaining that expression for several seconds before he finally spoke.

"Most of the time..._most of the time...I think I'm one of the luckiest older brothers alive to have a sister like you...."_

"Thanks, Ke..."

"Hold up before you thank me too fast, sis..." He told her. "Then, all of a sudden, you'll pull something that makes me wonder where the hell the sweet little sister I adore so much disappeared to. You were so common to Lizzie and Miranda one day at the Digital Bean, I almost just walked out...I actually went back in and apologized to them..."

"I just...They just..." Kate let out a sigh. "I don't know."

"They were your best friends, Kate...D'you know it really hurts Lizzie when you treat her like that?"

"I'm _sure it does..." Kate blurted even as, again, the quick flash of hurt in Lizzie's eyes, and the all but unseen quiver of her bottom lip that morning flashed into focus. _

"It does Kate...She still thinks the world of you, whether you realize it or not..." He looked at his little sister thoughtfully. "You know, Sis, you an' Lizzie are a lot more alike than you want to admit..."

"No way..."

"That's a complement, by the way...to _both of you."  He told her. "And I'm gonna tell ya something else. If anything, God forbid, ever happened to Lizzie, whether you know it or not, you'd be devastated." Kate just looked at her brother, unsure of how to reply to that. Kenny glanced at his watch. "Damn, twenty after five..." Unlike many salaried fire departments, AFD's shift change was at 6PM rather that 8AM. "I gotta get...Think about what I told ya sis, OK." _

"Ok," Kate told her brother, pursing her lips. Her tone of voice did not exactly fill Kenny with overwhelming trust.

"I mean it Kate..."

O-_kayee' I will..." She repeated. The two of them looked at each other for a second or so before Kate finally spoke again. She and Kenny had promised each other one thing when he got in the fire department. They would never...ever...part company mad at each other when Kenny left for work. "Hey..." She said as the pickups big V-8 kicked over with a guttural rumble. Kenny looked at her to see what form their traditional goodbye took this time "I hope, just about the time you guys sit down for supper, you get punched out on a two alarm __dump fire..." _

""Ouch...." Kenny said, grimacing comically. He then looked at Kate brightly. And I hope, oh, beloved sister, that tomorrow morning..." Kate tilted her head, standing hipshot, pretty smirk on her face. "Some evil freshman breaks into your gym lockers, and fills all of your gym shorts with itching powder..."

"Ooooh" Kate grimaced, then said.  "Be safe bro..."

"I will...See ya tomorrow night, you an' Claire have fun tonight..." He told her, then dropped the big Chevy into gear, and backed around. Kate watched as pulled forward and around the side of the house, throwing a wave over his shoulder.

Kenny, she thought to herself, is the only _real family I have. My dear mother and father, being deeply dedicated to, respectively, their careers and social standing, gave their children a passing thought occasionally and grew interested only if it appear that they might do something to (__horrors) embarrass them. Kate could still remember the shouted arguments that ensued when Kenny announced that he was applying for the Fire Department. (She still shuddered when she remembered her mom's disgust-dripping 'One of __my children...a mere __civil servant...) The two of them, after a little over three years, still barely communicated. Kenny and Ashlie were getting an apartment together sometime in the next few months..._

"And leaving me here to fend for myself...." Kate said aloud to herself. She started to walk over to her car, then changed direction and walked back towards the kitchen door, pulling it open and sticking her head inside.

"Mom, I'm on the way to Claire's!" She called through the door. No reply. Kate rolled her eyes and sighed. An unpleasant memory of the phone call she had made to her mom at the birthday party from hell started playing on an endless loop through her head.

"Mommmmm!!" 

"Will you be home for supper"? Her mom called from deep within the house. Kate thought 'Earth to Mom'. 

"I'll be spending the night, Mom..." Can't you _please just pretend you're a __little interested in my life? Kate thought forlornly to herself. "We talked about it last night, and I reminded you this morning...remember?" _

"Well..." There was a pause. "Be good..." Kate waited a couple more minutes, waiting for her mom to tell her to be careful. Or ask her if she had everything for school. Or _something. "Don't hold the door open, Kate, it's getting chilly out..."_

Kate rolled her eyes and let the door close, shaking her head. She walked back across towards her car, digging her keys from her purse as she did so.

'Wonder what it's like to have parents that actually seem to care about you....' She thought to herself as she all but flung her gym bag into the convertibles back seat to join her backpack. Kate climbed in and slammed the door. 'Buy her a brand new convertible for her birthday, maybe she won't bug us...' 'Pink' blasted from the speakers as Kate started up, she cut the volume back some (That in itself an indication of her mood) and pulled the seatbelt around. 'Here...the best computer and entertainment center that money can buy, now stay in your room, we have important things to do...' She banged the shifter into reverse and backed around, then shifted into drive, pulling off with a little squelp of rubber against concrete. 'Oh, you have a game to cheer at tonight...no, we won't be there, there are far more important things to deal with than our daughter's trivial little high school pursuits...' Kate felt tightness in her throat, felt a tear trickle from her right eye and dribble around the curve of her cheek. The night of that birthday party...Lizzie's mom making the three mile drive between their houses in what seemed like nothing flat...and her own mom's reaction when Kate had said 'Mom, I need you...' Kate reached up, and wiped her eyes as her vision began to shimmer. 

And her dad...the comment he'd made...admittedly, jokingly...to their mom one afternoon, the morning after she got home from camp, what was it almost five years ago,,,amazing how long something can hurt...her _dad...saying 'Great, now I have to explain that despite her blond hair and the way she looks, my daughter is __not a bimbo.'_

Her mom hadn't said a thing in her defense. Ok, they hadn't realized that she was standing in the mud room, looking for a 'T' shirt that she couldn't find (One, she suddenly realized, that Lizzie had given her as a Christmas present...) as they sat in the breakfast nook, drinking morning coffee, but she could've said _something. Kate had abandoned the search, had walked through the family room, and back to her room, grabbing the phone and calling Lizzie..._

Lizzie had gone somewhere with her parents...Kate had always secretly wondered, if Lizzie had been home that morning...

 The only time Lizzie had ever been mean to her...without provocation at any rate...had been three days later, at the digital bean...a snide comment about the fact that Kate, now that she owned a bra, didn't feel the need to call her friends any more.

Kate had countered, with one of that cat's claw broadsides that Junior High age girls do so well, that Lizzie, herself apparently was too feeble minded to figure out the use of the telephone herself. Kate, still reeling from the hurt of her dad's comment, had gone to level one nasty, throwing the first wedge into the rift that opened between her and Lizzie.

Kate rolled down their driveway and hung a right on Island Pine Drive, then followed that out to Amber Pointe Parkway. Another tear coursed its way down her cheek as she turned left on Amber Pointe.

It wouldn't for Kenny and Ethan; I'd probably be in a padded room at Eastern State right now, Kate thought, reaching up and wiping away a tear with the back of her hand. (She remembered overhearing Lizzie mention her and Ethan at lunch one day, and getting ready to slam her, then realizing what she was saying. That she was glad Ethan had finally asked Kate to go out with him...and the memory of what she said next, something that Kate had all but shut out, because it didn't fit with the image she tried to force Lizzie into. 'Kate always looks so happy when she's with him...' Miranda and Gordo had even had to agree with that. Ethan Craft...who Lizzie had crushed on all the way through Junior High. And Lizzie had said that even after the way I treat her. .

Kenny's voice, only five or so minutes ago, saying 'She still thinks the world of you, whether you realize it or not...' popped into that mental MP3 player nestled beneath her long blond hair.

Another tear trickled down her cheek. 

Lizzie had tried to apologize for what she had said, but Kate had rebuffed her. Then Kate had made the HJHS cheering squad, and Lizzie hadn't. And all the way through this, Miranda and Gordo had stuck right by Lizzie...And Kate had just gotten nastier and nastier to them, as if trying to justify her own actions...

To this day, Kate wasn't sure what started it, why Lizzie had gone off on her the way she did at the 'Bean. By the time it struck her that maybe she should have asked, it had probably been too late.

Sorry it took me so long to update, I was going to try to add a little more, but things got hectic. Please, feel free to teto tell me what you think! More to come soon, I promise! 


	4. Glossary of FireRescueEms Terms

Glossary of Fire/Rescue/EMS Terms

I am truly sorry it took me so long to update! Lets just say things got really hectic!

I decided to add this glossary of terms to the story before it got deeply into any fire/rescue operations so the terms wouldn't completely confuse anybody. You guys can, of course either refer to this thing if you run up on a term you don't understand, or read it all the way through.. I tried to make it readable, interesting, and not too dry or boring.

    This is FAR from being an all-inclusive list of fire and EMS terms...heck, it doesn't even make a dent! I tried to stick with terms that are used in the story, but I added a few that should help with the general understanding of the operations of a large suburban fire department ...even a fictitious one such as Atlantis FD, and one or two I just thought were interesting.

  . Hope these terms help everyone understand what's going on in the rescue and fire scenes in the story, as well as the scenes that take place in the station. There's one more sort of set up chapter, then things really get rolling big time! Hope everyone's enjoying it so far!

A

**Aerial ladder:   A power (Usually hydraulically) operated multi-section ladder, mounted on a truck, used to access the upper floors of multi-story buildings****. Standard lengths, extended are 50', 75', 85', and 100', though 110 footers are becoming more popular, and there have been some 125 and 150 footers built (Imagine climbing a 150 footer!) The ladders are built with telescopic sections, most 75 footers and longer are three or four section ladders, 50 footers are usually 2 section ladders.**

**Aerial Platform (Also Tower Ladder or simply Platform) An aerial ladder that includes a basket attached to the end of the ladder. Most aerial platforms utilize aerial ladders of 95 to 110 feet in length. Easily recognized on the road by the large, cage-like basket overhanging the cab. Extremely versatile piece of equipment that combines the advantages of the aerial ladder's long, power operated ladder with the large work platform. Crews can often work from the basket rather than having to climb out on an unstable roof, several people can be removed from the upper floors of a burning structure at the same time, and patient care can be started on an injured patient before they reach the ground. The baskets are _always equipped with either one or two large capacity (500-2000 Gallon Per Minute) nozzles_**

**Air Bag: A very heavy duty, rubberized lifting bag inflated with compressed air, used to lift heavy objects...vehicles, machinery, sections of collapsed walls, etc...off of trapped patients. Made in capacities from 1 ton to 50 or so tons.. When deflated they are only an inch or so thick, and square, when inflated they can lift an object...depending on the size of the bag...from six inches to about two feet. Far lighter, easier to position, and more versatile then the venerable heavy lifting tool it has, for the most part, replaced, the railroad jack.**

**Air Chisel: Air powered cutting tool used to cut thinner metal such a vehicle roof and door panels. Resembles an electric drill in appearance, utilizes a chisel-headed bit that reciprocates at high speed, creating a precise and controllable cut through a metal panel. Extremely useful, for example, if you need to cut an opening in th roof of a car that is on it's side, or though the side of a van.**

**Air mask: Technically termed SCBA, or self-contained breathing apparatus, this breating unit provides a firefighter with up to 45 minutes of breathing air( NOT oxygen, as many people think). It consists of a backpack style harness, a tank...or bottle...of air pressurized, in many modern units, to 4500 pounds per square inch, a face piece, and a regulator which steps the tank pressure down to the much lower pressure at which air is delivered to the firefighter's face piece. Most modern units are positive pressure units, which deliver the air to the face piece at a slightly higher than normal pressure. This allows the firefighter to breathe normally rather than having to inhale deeply enough to kick in a 'demand' type regulator. Additionally, it also keeps the mask clear of smoke and dangerous gasses, even if the seal between the mask and the firefighter's face isn't perfect. Interesting fact...though the bottles, technically, are good for up to 45 minutes, this is under ideal test conditions. A firefighter inside a burning building, exerting himself with the adrenaline pumping over time, can suck a bottle dry in about fifteen minutes. **

**Airway: The air path from the nose and mouth through the throat, trachea, and bronchial tubes to the lungs. It is VITAL that this be kept unobstructed, and is the _VERY first thing that is checked when assessing a patient's condition. (If a patient is conscious and talking to you, the airway is open). If the patient is unconscious, you IMMEDIATELY check to make sure the patient's airway is unobstructed, and that they are indeed, breathing. If obstructed, immediate measures are started to open the airway, and restore breathing._**

**Airway Bag: A zippered, usually nylon bag, similar in appearance to a large gym bag, containing equipment for opening and maintaining a patient's airway. (Intubation kit for inserting a breathing tube into a patient's trachea,  Bag-valve-mask, etc)**

**Alert Tone: A high-pitched tone that is transmitted over the radio immediately before an alarm is announced to the stations. The tone serves to alert personnel that a call is about to be dispatched so they can be prepared to copy the type, location, etc, and so they will know that the radio traffic that follows is indeed an alarm and not routine radio traffic. . It also gives the firefighters who may be say, eating or taking a shower the opportunity to comment colorfully on the timing of the alarm.  Many departments also use a second , different tone to alert personnel that an announcement (Road closure, hydrant or unit out of service, etc) is to follow**

**ALS or Advanced Life Support: Patient care provided in the field to seriously injured or ill individuals in which cardiac monitors and defibrillators can be employed,  IV fluids and various medications can be administered, and procedures such as crychotomies (Opening a breathing hole in the trachea) and chest decompression can be performed. Personnel must be trained, in the Commonwealth of Virginia, where the fanfics is set, to at least the level of Cardiac Technician to perform these procedures in the field.**

**Alarm Activation: Activation of an automatic fire alarm system (Smoke or heat detector, sprinkler system, etc) in a building. The activation sends a signal to a monitoring service, such a ADT or Wells Fargo, they in turn notify the appropriate fire department. Apparatus is then dispatched to investigate. . The great majority of these calls are due to  system problems or an accidental activation caused, say, by personnel testing the system. This type of call has the _evil tendency to occur at (A) mealtimes, (B) Oh Dark Hundred in the morning and (C) ten minutes before shift change._**

**Arrival Report: Report radioed to the dispatch center by the officer in charge of the first arriving piece of apparatus at a fire or incident scene.  On a fire call, the report would briefly describe, for example, the type of building (Or vehicle, or approximate area, and speed of spread of a brush fire) involved, if any fire or smoke was visible, if any other buildings or vehicles were endangered, and the status of any occupants, if known. The sides of a building are designated by either numbers or letters as follows, 1 or A, front: 2 or B, right side as you face the building; 3 or C, rear; 4 or D, left side as you are facing the building, so it would sound something like this.**

"Engine 28 on scene, single story frame dwelling, fire showing side 1, similar structures 25 feet, sides 2 and 4, occupants unknown"

  On an accident, the report would advise the number of vehicles involved, any hazards, if any of the vehicles were occupied, and if anyone appeared to be trapped. Example:

"Rescue 3 on scene, two vehicle accident, both vehicles occupied, no hazards visible, no one appears to be trapped at this time"

**Attack Line: Hose line that is advanced from the engine to the fire to attack the fire. Usually 1 ¾ inches in diameter, on larger fires, 2 ½ inch lines are used**

B

**Backboard. A firm wooden or fiberglass panel tapered at one end and equipped with runners on the bottom and openings for securing straps and/or hand holds along the edges. Usually about 6 to 7 feet long by 2 ½ feet wide. Patients who could possibly have suffered spinal injuries in a fall, accident, etc are secured to the board and, also using head restraints and cervical collars, immobilized as a unit to stabilize the spinal column and minimize any damage that might have occurred. EMT instructors _delight in having an unfortunate volunteer secured to a board by his students, and then having them flip the board over to see if they did it right. If the patient is secured properly, trust me...he or she won't move._**

**Back draft: A phenomenon that occurs when a fire inside a building has reached the smoldering stage and smoldered for an extended period of time****, depleting most of the oxygen, and filling the building with superheated smoke and combustible gasses. (Smoke, by the way, is flammable) If air is suddenly admitted into the fire area, ALL of that smoke and combustible gas will ignite explosively. I have seen a back draft blow the walls out of a building, and send a rooftop air-conditioning unit sailing about 50 feet into the middle of a parking lot. If extremely heavy smoke is showing from a building, and actually looks as if it's sucking back IN at places, you _HAVE to open the roof up and vent the building before you even __think of trying to send a crew inside._**

**Basket: Term used for the open topped cage on the business end of an elevating platform, tower ladder, or snorkel. Carries two to three firefighters, often a short hose line,  breathing air outlets, and any number of pieces of firefighting gear. _ALWAYS equipped with one or two high capacity nozzles. _**

**Basket Nozzle: Large capacity, permanently mounted and piped nozzle(s) capable of flowing up to 2000 gallons per minute mounted on the basket of a platform, tower ladder, or snorkel. Can be mounted either singularly, or in pairs. Rigs with twin basket nozzles often mount two 750-gpm nozzles that can be operated independently of each other,**

**Basket Stretcher: A stretcher formally made of heavy gauge wire and metal tubing, now usually made of fiberglass that resembles a long, rectangular bowl. Designed so a patient secured to back board can be placed in the stretcher The patient can be placed inside the stretcher, and secured for removal from rough terrain, excavations, winched up into a helicopter, lifted out with a n aerial ladder or crane, etc. Also known as a Stoakes Stretcher, or Stoakes Basket. Kelly's dad was placed in one of these at the rescue scene in 'Cadet Kelly'.**

**BLS: Patient care provided by Personnel not certified in advanced life support procedures. They can either be treating a patient who does not have life-threatening injuries or illnesses, providing initial care to a critical patient until ALS personnel can arrive, or backing up an ALS provider by setting up IVs, taking vital signs, etc. **

 BLS personnel (EMTs) can administer oxygen, oral glutose, assist a patient with the administration of his own meds, check a patient's blood sugar and blood oxygen level, deliver babies, perform CPR, take vital signs, set up cardiac monitors and attach patients to them, perform any noninvasive procedure such as splinting, controlling bleeding, stabilizing a flail chest, and any of dozens of things that need to be done on calls. These guys and gals are the backbone of EMS. (Yeah, I was one for a LOOOONG time!)

**Booster Line: Also known as Booster Reels Small diameter hose lie (Usually 1") mounted on a reel either on top of or at the rear of a pumper. The reels hold anywhere from 150' to 400' of hose, but the all but universal standard length was 200' Used for small fires such as trash fires, dumpster fires, brush fires, etc. Few modern pumpers are equipped with booster lines any more, much to the chagrin of firefighters everywhere. It's a lot easier, after extinguishing a 2AM dumpster fire when it's 25 degrees out, to rewind a booster line than it is to drain and repack even a 100 foot 1 3/4 " 'Trash Line'**

**Booster Tank  Water tank on a triple combination pumper (All modern pumpers are 'Triple's) with a capacity of anywhere from 250 to 750 gallons. The standard is a 500-gallon tank, though many rigs used in rural or semi rural areas are equipped with 750-gallon tanks. Anything with an 800 gallon or larger tank in considered a tanker**

**Brush Truck: Small, maneuverable all wheel drive pumper specifically designed to handle brush fires. Brush trucks _ALWAYS have booster reels. They can be anything from pick-up mounted pump and tank combinations to highly sophisticated rigs with hundreds of feet of forestry hose, a couple of tons of equipment, a generator and lights, special foam which is formulated to saturate mulch,  attack deep seated fires and cling to vegetation ahead of a fire to impede fire spread. Oh, and just because they're designed for brush fires, that doesn't mean that's all they can fight. More than one car or dumpster fire has been knocked down by a brush truck crew, and a good crew can even put a dent in the average one or two room and contents house fire. In many departments, brush rigs roll on __EVERYTHING  during heavy snow._**

**Bucket: slang term for an aerial platform or snorkel**

**Bunker Gear Firefighting clothing consisting of specially designed and constructed turnout coat, pants, boots, gloves, hood, and helmet. These days everything but the boots and helmet is made in large part of fire resistant Nomex. Coat and pants are multi-layered and constructed with an outer shell made of Nomex or a similar fire resistant material. Also, and possibly more commonly known as turnout gear, or turnouts**

**Bunker pants: specially designed and constructed firefighting trousers. Like the coat, multi layered with the outer shell constructed of Nomex or a similar fire resistant material. They are also designed to be folded down on top of the boots so, when a call comes in, the firefighter can step in the boots, and pull the bunker pants up over his uniform pants in all but one motion.**

**Bush beater: Firefighter's slang term for a brush truck.**

C

**C-Collar: A specially designed plastic and foam collar designed to be placed around the patient's neck, supporting the chin and immobilizing the head in an upright, forward facing position. This stabilizes and immobilizes the all important cervical spine, the vertebrae of the neck. At best an improperly handled severe injury to the C-spine will result in the patient being a quadriplegic, at the worst it could result in death, Used _ANYTIME that the cervical spine might be injured and this includes just about __ANY serious accident or traumatic injury a rescue unit might respond, and __ANY traffic accident or fall. It's far better to be safe than sorry in these situations._**

**C-Spine. 1)  Verbal**** shorthand for the cervical spine. ****2) Verbal short hand for the act of pulling spinal traction on an accident victim's cervical spine to stabilize it and keep it in line until a collar can be applied., as in ' Stu, get in the back seat, and hold C-spine on the driver'. It's accomplished by , if the patient is seated , reaching around from behind the patient and cradling the patient's lower jaw and face in both hands, fingers spread slightly, with the thumbs behind the ears, and gently pulling the head straight upward slightly. If the patient is on the ground, the EMT kneels at the head, places a hand, palm in and flat, on either side, cradling the lower jaw, and again exerts gentle linear traction. **

**Cascade system. A system of connected large capacity air bottles used for filling air mask bottles, either on a fire scene or at the station. Not as prevalent as they used to be on fire scenes as most departments now have specialized rigs with engine driven compressors and filtered air filling systems for filling air bottles on scene.**

**Chemical engine:  I included this just as an interesting historical note. Long extinct type of rig that carried either one or two 50 to 100 gallon cylindrical tanks containing a vial of hydrochloric acid and a vial of bicarbonate of soda at inside the tank at one end. Upon arriving at a scene, the driver used a large crank to operate a mechanism that dumped and mixed the two chemicals, creating carbon dioxide, which forced the water out of the tank and through a small diameter hose line. In effect, it was a giant soda-acid extinguisher. This is what was used on small fires in the day of steam pumpers (Most hose wagons were equipped with a chemical system) and before booster tanks came into vogue on motorized rigs. The only problem was, once you had water flowing, you couldn't shut it off...you had to wait for the tank to dump!**

**Code: 1)  Verbal short hand for full cardiac and respiratory arrest **** 2) to go into full arrest (The patient coded on the way in)**

**Coffin  The very accurate slang term for the engine cover on custom-built fire equipment. On cab forward rigs, the engine is located behind the driver and shotgun man, between the jump seats, and is enclosed  with a slant-topped diamond-plate cover that does, indeed, look like a coffin.**

**Crash Team: A Police Department vehicle accident investigative team that investigates major accidents, especially those that involve or may involve a fatality, with multiple vehicles/ multiple critical injuries, or any accident with a complicated cause or that occurs under unusual circumstances. If a road is still closed _hours after an accident, it probably means that the crash team is at work. _**

**Crash Truck: 1) A specialized airport fire unit specifically designed to handle aircraft crash fires. They're all wheel drive, carry huge quantities of foam and water, and mount several high capacity nozzles that can exhaust the rig's water and foam supply in one or two minutes. The whole shooting match can be controlled from inside the rig's cab. Designed to reach a downed aircraft fast, and affect a quick knockdown of the fire, hopefully allowing the passengers to be rescued. ****2)  Originally, the second definition meant a rescue truck designed primarily to handle vehicle accidents of all kinds. This term is used almost exclusively by volunteer rescue squads, and actually has come to mean _any volunteer rescue squad rescue truck. And believe me, many of the volunteer squads have some truly sophisticated and truly good looking rigs._**

**Cribbing:  Wooden blocks, often connected in pairs by a short length of rope, used to build supporting structure beneath an unstable section of a collapsed structure, unstable wreckage, or an unstable vehicle or portion of a vehicle while rescue operations are underway at an accident scene. Can also be used as solid support for chain or cable being used to pull a portion of a vehicle (Such as a steering column) aside, and to turn the chain or cable so it's pulling at a better angle. Has somewhere around ten thousand uses on an incident scene, believe me. Can also be...and often is...used in conjunction with wooden wedges. **

**Cross-Lay: A traverse hose bed, usually directly behind the cab and above the pump panel of a pumper. Usually separated into two or three bays by metal partitions, each bay holding anywhere from 150 to 250' of small diameter (Usually 1 ¾")  attack line. Pre-piped so the hose line is preconnected, and packed into the bed so that it can be pulled and advanced quickly and easily. A good crew can put a preconnected attack line in service in well under half a minute**

D

**Deluge set (Also deluge gun, deck set, deck gun, deck pipe) A large nozzle and pipe assembly traditionally mounted above the pump on an engine. It can be either demountable and (Relatively) portable, or pre-piped and permanently mounted. Designed to flow large quantities of water, anywhere between 500 and 2000 Gallons per minute. Used at when a structure fire has reached a point where interior firefighting has become impossible, and large volumes of water are needed...in other words, the _big ones. Also useful at scenes (such as a large dump fire, wood chip pile fire, etc) where large quantities of water are required to affect complete extinguishment._**

**Disentanglement:  The act of, literally, removing a wrecked car from around a trapped patient by removing the roof, doors, steering wheel, moving the dash, etc. A good rescue crew can pretty well disassemble the average car in ten or so minutes at a training exercise, a little longer at a scene due to the care that is taken not to further injure the trapped patient.**

**Defibrillator:  A device designed to pass an electrical charge through a heart in Ventricular fibrillation...beating erratically without moving any blood...thereby restoring a normal, or at least life sustaining heart beat.**

**Due (1st due, 2nd due, 3rd due, etc): Term used in describing the order in which apparatus will be dispatched, or will arrive at a given location. The closest unit to a scene is said to be 'first due', next closest '2nd due', and so on. In simplest terms, an engine company's first due  area is the area surrounding the engine's station, while a truck company or a rescue company  is first due in the area where it is closer than the next nearest truck company  or rescue. Also, engine companies respond on _every fire call...and most rescue calls...in their first due area, plus structure fires in their 2nd, 3rd , and sometimes 4th  due area on the first alarm._**

 Truck companies only respond to structure fires in their first and second due area on the first alarm, plus specific types of other fire or rescue calls in their first due.

 Rescues are the jacks of all trades. In Atlantis they are considered part of the engine company for fire fighting purposes, so they can go to anything the engine stationed with them can go to,(Though give the guys a break. You won't hear them dispatched to, say, a dumpster fire) plus all structure and vehicle fires and rescue calls in their own first due 

Truck and Rescue companies tend to have larger first due areas than engines because there are fewer trucks and rescues than there are engine companies Atlantis for example, supposedly has 52 stations, all of which have engine companies. Only 27 of them have truck companies, and only 21 have rescue companies (And in the real world, it would likely be even fewer truck companies and rescues. Nice thing about making up a fictional fire department...you don't have to worry about a budget!) so each truck company would have an area encompassing at least two engine company first due areas, and each rescue's first due would encompass two to _three engine company first due areas._

E

**EMS: system, usually municipally staffed and funded, that provides emergency response, treatment, and transport for persons who become ill or who are injured. Usually, but not always integrated with the locality's fire department. An EMS system can be fully paid, fully volunteer, or a combination of the two (For example paid drivers, and volunteer crew)**

**Engine:  A pumper. The terminology dates back to the days of horse drawn steam powered pumpers which were ONLY pumpers...they carried no hose or water tank. The rest of the equipment, hose included, was aboard another horse drawn rig known as a hose wagon. The rigs in use today are technically known as triple combination pumpers, so called because they carry a pump (Anywhere from 500 to 2000 GPM capacity) a water tank (Anywhere from 250 to 750 gallons) and hose, both supply (From 1000 to 2000') and attack lines. The rigs are sometimes referred to as 'triples' but usually simply as an engine...the last rig built that _wasn't a triple combination was probably built, retired __and scrapped long before most of you guys __parents were born. (Historical note...originally a 'Triple' was a rig with a pump, hose, and a chemical system. Booster tanks didn't become widely used until the mid twenties or later, and there were still rigs with chemical _**

systems in service well into the '30s)

**Engine Company: Company of firefighters assigned to an engine. Traditionally the primary responsibility at a fire scene is establishing a water supply and attacking and extinguishing the fire. Engine companies are first in on just about everything, from medical emergencies and vehicle accidents to major fires and often respond on medical calls, both to get trained personnel to the scene quickly if the engine is closer to the scene than the rescue unit, and to provide additional manpower at manpower intensive calls, such as full arrests**

**Exposure:  Any building, vehicle, brush, or other object or area that is not yet involved in fire but is in danger of igniting due to it's proximity to a fire. Exposures can be external (A structure endangered by a brush fire, or a garage endangered by a burning house,) or internal (A uninvolved bedroom across the hall from a bedroom which is involved in fire)**

**Extrication: The process of removing a patient from a wrecked car, excavation, etc**

F

**Federal 'Q': A very high quality electric motor type siren, manufactured by the Federal Sign and Signal Corporation, which produces a very distinctive, rich wail. These sirens have been around since the '50's and are dearly loved by the fire service. They can either be flush mounted on the front of a rig or mounted on a fender, bumper, etc. Almost always chrome plated and easily recognizable by the very large diameter front housing which houses the rotor, The sides of the housing have the sound slots in them, the front has a very intricate grillwork pattern with a large upper case letter 'F' surrounded by a lightning bolt in the center.**

**Femur:  The thighbone, the largest bone in the body. A fracture is extremely painful and  very serious, because the broken ends want to over ride each other. A fractured femur can also cause a significant loss of blood. If not managed properly by responding rescue personnel, permanent disability is a very definite possibility.**

**Fill-in (Also called 'Move-up) : To move fire companies in from out lying areas to cover stations whose normally assigned companies are out on a major fire or rescue incident. This is done to prevent large areas of a community from being left uncovered...or covered by units a long distance away...in the event of a major fire or rescue incident. One or two companies are usually moved from each out lying area...for example, if six stations need to be covered in the center of Manhattan, a couple of companies would be moved in from the Bronx, maybe one from Harlem, one or two from Queens, and a couple from Brooklyn**

**Fire stream: The technical term for a stream of water used to attack a fire.**

**First Respond:  ****(1) To respond to the scene of a medical call or accident and begin patient care prior to the arrival of the rescue unit. Engine and truck companies are often dispatched along with the rescue unit, especially if the engine is closer and can get to the location first. Engines or trucks are also dispatched to calls that might require additional manpower (Such as a medical call that could be manpower intensive, or a trauma call such as a fall where additional manpower is useful to immobilize and remove the patient.)Almost all salaried firefighters are medically trained at least to the EMT level. Engines also respond automatically on vehicle accidents and other possible serious rescue problems for hazard control and for extra manpower. ****(2) the formal term used when an off duty firefighter, EMT, or paramedic responds to a scene and begins patient care before the arrival of fire and/or rescue units**

**Flail Chest: Extremely serious internal injury caused when two or more adjacent ribs are fractured in two or more places.. A floating section of ribs is formed which moves _opposite normal chest movement, it sucks inward when the patient inhales, moves outward when the patient exhales, creating severely painful and difficult breathing. The broken ribs can also cause further injury by, for example, puncturing a lung. Treated in the field by placing the patient on high flow Oxygen, securing bulky dressings over the affected area to stabilize the floating section of ribs, and getting the patient to the hospital as quickly as safely possible.._**

**'Flap The Roof':  To fold back the front portion of a wrecked vehicle's roof , thereby making both access to and removal of a trapped patient easier. Accomplished by cutting the windshield corner posts (Known technically as the 'A' posts), then using a tool such as a long  pry bar to make a crease across the width of the roof (Small cuts can also be made at the edges of the crease) Then firefighters just fold the roof up and over at the crease and , voila! Instant convertible!**

**Flashover: Phenomenon that occurs when a fire (or example, a burning sofa or chair) in a room heats all of the contents of the room to a temperature at or above their ignition temperature. When this occurs, everything in the room ignites spontaneously and violently, often blowing windows out and quickly extending to other portions of the building. A very common occurrence and it doesn't take long for fire conditions to develop to the flashover stage. A foam-filled sofa in the average living room or den, when ignited, can bring the room to the point of flashover in less than five minutes. **

**Fog: In fire fighting terminology, a stream of water that is broken up into tiny droplets. Extremely effective, especially on interior fires. Almost all attack lines are equipped with fog nozzles, the fog stream can be adjusted from a very wide fog pattern to a straight stream.**

**Forcible Entry: Fire fighting term for the task of gaining entry into a locked structure, vehicle, or enclosure, be it for firefighting or to effect a rescue. A team of firefighters assigned to gain entry is termed a '****forcible entry team'**

**Frequent Flyer:  A patient who constantly calls 911 complaining of trivial or non-existent medical problems. A true thorn in the EMTs side, both because of the extreme   aggravation of going to the same address for nothing, sometimes several times a day, and because of the possibility of a legitimate emergency occurring while the unit is tied up on the call. Nothing's more frustrating than being out with a drunk complaining of a headache he had a week ago, and hearing the 2nd due unit dispatched to a serious medical call or accident at a  location only a minute or so from your station.**

**Full Arrest: Condition in which the patient is in full cardiac and respiratory arrest, with no pulse and no breathing.**

**Full Assignment: A specific number of engine, truck, rescue, and sometimes special companies (Such as foam units or Haz-Mat units) assigned to respond to a specific type of call on the first alarm. I have AFD set up, for example, with a full residential assignment being 3 engines, 1 truck, and a rescue, Commercial/industrial/apartment assignment is 4 engines, 2 trucks, and a rescue. An occupied school, day care, etc gets an additional rescue automatically. A traffic accident with persons trapped gets two engines and a rescue.**

G

**Golden Hour: A 60-minute block of time beginning the instant that a patient is critically injured. If a patient can be reached, extricated, transported to the hospital, and have emergency surgery started with-in this hour, it increases his/her chances of survival tremendously**

H

**Hand Light: A powerful, usually rechargeable battery lantern.**

**Hand Line: Firefighting term for a hose line that is advanced by hand from the engine to the fire. Another term, used interchangeably, for attack line.**

**Haligan Tool: A specialized prying tool developed for the fire service that has a wedge shaped combination prying tool and claw tool (A straightened, much larger version of a hammer's claw) on one end, and an adz (smaller wedge like prying tool) and pick, set at a 90 degree angle to each other. Made in several lengths, but 36" and 42" are the most popular lengths. An extremely useful tool, with thousands of uses on a fire or rescue scene.**

**Hard Sleeve: The large diameter, usually black pipes seen mounted on the sides of an engine. They are actually reinforced sections of hose, used to draft water from a static water source such as a pond, river, swimming pool, etc. One end is attached to the engine's intake, the other end is dropped into the water supply, then the pump is primed, drawing water into it, allowing the pump to draw water, via suction, from the water source and deliver it to the fire.**

**Head Blocks: Plastic covered foam filled blocks placed on either side of a patient's head to stabilize and immobilize it and the cervical spine while the patient is being transported to the hospital. Used in conjunction with a C-collar and a backboard. Secured by Velcro to a base plate, which is semi-permanently mounted on the head end of a backboard, and tightened down with a pair of straps, one of which goes beneath the patient's chin, the other across the forehead, just above the eyebrows.**

**Hurst Tool:  The technical name for the Jaws of Life, manufactured by the Hurst Power Equipment Company. Operates hydraulically using a gas or electric power unit, which delivers hydraulic fluid under pressure to any of several devices through a small, very high pressure, double hose line. (A delivery line and a return line) The set, of course consists of the familiar spreaders (Available in several sizes and configurations) that everyone thinks of when they think 'Jaws of Life', but also includes 'Rams' (Used for lifting or separating) cutters (Used, for example to cut roof posts and remove the roof of a wrecked vehicle) and combination tools, usually a single tool that combines spreader and cutter, as well as several more specialized tools. The system can exert as much as 20k pounds of force against whatever has to be moved, lifted or removed. Most system also include a 200 foot reel for the hose, and a preconnected manifold that allows several tools to be connected and operated simultaneously**

I

**Incident Command System:  A system of command used on incident scenes where an overall incident commander designates officers to handle 'sectors' of the scene; for example at a house fire you might have 'interior sector, exterior sector, water supply, ventilation, etc. At a vehicle accident, you might have extrication, triage, hazard control landing zone (If a medical helicopter is dispatched) Also, using this system, incident scenes are designated on the radio by geographical location, a call on Hillridge Parkway, for example would be designated as 'Hillridge Command' Makes things much more organized, especially at major incidents**

**Initial Attack: Technical term for the first water applied to a fire.**

J

**Jump Seat: Crew seating positions behind the driver and shotgun man in the cab of a piece of fire apparatus. While the traditional image of an engine responding to a fire call includes the crew riding on the back of the rig (Riding tailboard) this is rarely if ever done any more, never in large departments. All modern pieces of equipment have accommodations for the crew to ride inside the cab, and the newest ones aren't even set up for the crew to ride tailboard. (This is a good idea that finally made it 'Across the pond' European fire crews have ridden inside the rigs since the coming of motorized fire equipment)**

**Jump Bag: A zippered nylon bag containing any medical equipment that might be needed when initially reaching and treating a patient...BP cuff, stethoscope (Though most EMS personnel carry their own), Oxygen mottle, and masks, some basic trauma supplies, etc. This is the first thing the  EMS provider grabs and takes to the patient, patient care can be started while any other needed equipment is obtained and set up.**

K

**K.E.D. (Kendrick Extrication Device) A vinyl vests-like device that with several vertical wooden slats enclosed within it to provide rigidity. It is designed to wrap around the patient's back, chest, and abdomen, and has a 'panhandle' that wraps around the patient's head and neck. It is secured with a system of straps, and is specifically designed to immobilize a patient's spine as he/she is being removed from a motor vehicle (It replaces the late and very much unlamented short backboard). The K.E.D. is applied; then the patient can be turned as a unit, laid down and slid or moved onto a backboard. Then the groin straps are released and the patient's legs straightened so she/he can lie flat on the board. (Also, esp. with a male patient, you _gotta release the groin straps before you straighten the legs...__trust me on this). Only used in less serious accidents where the patient doesn't have life threatening injuries due both to the time it takes to apply, and the time it takes to remove it in the ER._**

**Knockdown: The point during the fighting of a fire, that, while there is still active flame production, the fire is no longer increasing in size. ****(2) To decrease the intensity of a fire to the point where it is no longer increasing in size.**

L

**Ladder Pipe: A master stream device attached to the end of an aerial ladder for the purpose of a applying a large volume of water onto a fire from above, or directing a large volume of water into the upper floors of a burning building. There are two types of ladder pipe. A bed pipe is usually fixed and is attached to the end of the lowermost section...or bed section...of the ladder. It is usually supplied by a permanently installed pipe running along the underside of the bed section of the ladder. **

**             A fly pipe is removable, stored in an easily accessible location on the rig until needed, and is attached to the very end of the upper most section of the ladder...it's name is derived from the term for the extendable sections of an aerial ladder, which are called the fly sections. A hose line is extended up the ladder to supply this device. Both can be used at the same time. **

**"Lay In" ****Also known as 'Laying a Line': To stop the engine at the at the water source (Hydrant, pond, etc), drop the end of its hose load, or 'supply line' off of the rear of the rig, then proceed to the fire scene, laying a line of hose behind the engine as it moves forward. The supply line is loaded or 'Flaked' into the rig's hose bed in folded layers so it will drop off of the rear of the rig as it pulls forward, leaving a trail of hose as it goes.  The end of the hose at the water source is attached either to the hydrant, or most often to a discharge on the next in engine, which then either hooks up to the hydrant or drafts from the water source if it's a pond or similar body of water, and pumps water to the engine at the fire scene.**

**Lay Out: To lay a line from the fire scene to the hydrant. Used when supplying a sprinkler or standpipe system, or when the hydrant is beyond the fire building and the next in engine is close behind the first due engine. In the latter example, the 2nd in engine drops a line at the fire scene and proceeds to the hydrant, hooks up, and pumps to the engine on the fire scene. (Of course, both units have to use adapters because the hose lay will be reversed. Discharges are always male threaded, intakes have female threads so the rig on the hydrant has to use a double male, the unit on the scene has to use a double female to connect to the supply line.)**

**Leads: Small electrical or fiber optic cables connected to a cardiac monitor that are attached to electrodes applied to a patient's chest so that the patients cardiac rhythm can be observed, monitored, and analyzed**

**L.D.H. (Large Diameter Hose) Hose larger than 3 ½ inches in diameter. Used as supply line, and able to move a tremendous volume of water with minimal friction loss. Often referred to a 'Portable Water Main' Made in 4, 5, and 6 inch diameters. Another advantage, it's usually equipped with sexless quick connect type couplings, which means you never have to use adapters if you lay out from the fire to the hydrant.**

**Line: (1) verbal short hand for a hose line. A line used to put water on the fire is known as an attack line, a line used to protect an exposure is termed an exposure line, and a line that brings water from a water source to a fire scene is called a supply line.****(2) Slang for an I.V. To "Start a line" on a patient means to start an I.V.**

M

**Master Stream: Any fire stream in excess of 300 gallons per minute, applied to the fire with specially designed appliances (Ladder Pipe, basket nozzle, deluge set, etc) known collectively as ****Master Stream Devices. Used on major fires where large volumes of water are needed for extinguishment. (Also, at least once during a summer training exercise on a 95 degree day at a Richmond area high school, directed almost straight up, so a large group of cheerleaders, majorettes, and drill team members who were just finishing up practice could have a blast running around in the spray to cool off. They got to cool off, the crew (Who included the dad of one of the cheerleaders) got milkshakes bought for them when they got back to the station.**

**M.A.S.T. Trousers:  Specially designed medical trousers, constructed of rubberized vinyl with three inflatable chambers (Right and left leg and abdomen) that are applied to a patient who has suffered severe traumatic injury. When the chambers are inflated (One at a time, extremities first) it decreases circulation to the abdomen and legs and forces blood to remain in the upper part of the body, ensuring adequate blood supply to the vital organs and helping to prevent shock. Can also be used to stabilize extremity and pelvic fractures. The letters stand for either Military or Medical Anti Shock Trousers...I've heard both. **

**Medical:  Collective term for any problem that originates with-in the body, not involving physical injury. Examples, heart attack, stroke, asthma. allergic reaction, poisoning, seizures, etc**

**Monitor: (1) A piece of medical equipment that is used to observe and analyze a patient's cardiac rhythm. The tiny electrical impulses that trigger the heart's pumping action are picked up by electrodes attached to the patient's chest and transmitted by a cable to the monitor, where they appear as a pattern of moving lines or points of light on a small screen. All monitors also have the capability to print out a hard copy of the rhythm on a strip of specially treated paper, and to archive the recorded rhythms and events of a call for print-out later. All modern monitors are combined with defibrillators in a single unit. ****(2) Another term for deluge set or deluge gun.**

**M.P.O. (Motor Pump Operator) Official title**** given to the driver of an engine, who also operates the unit's pump **

**N**

**Nonrebreather: A type of oxygen mask that has an inflatable oxygen reservoir attached to the front of the mask. The reservoir is inflated with oxygen just before the mask is placed over the patient's mouth and nose. It is designed to deliver oxygen at high percentages (90 to 96%) at high flows (Twelve to fifteen liters/min.) and is used to administer oxygen to patients suffering from critical injuries or illnesses or who are suffering from severe difficulty breathing.**

O

**Outriggers: On an aerial ladder, aerial platform, or snorkel, large hydraulically operated braces that are lowered on either side of the rig to stabilize and level the unit so that the ladder can be raised and operated safely. Used in conjunction with hydraulically operated jacks at front and rear that actually lift the unit a few inches off  the ground to provide the ladder or platform with a stable, rigid operating base.**

**P**

**Pneumothorax:  A collapsed lung caused by air entering the chest cavity (Either because of a puncture to the lung itself, or because of air being drawn in through a chest wound. ) and preventing the lung from expanding properly. ******

**"Punch Out":  Slang term for dispatching a call. (Radio just punched Engine 28 out on a brush fire). Derived from both the alert tone, and from the page tones used by many departments to activate station bells, lights, and in volunteer departments, the volunteers' pagers and the station siren.**

Q/R

**Quick call (Or Quik-call) Page tones transmitted to activate station bells or klaxons, turn on lights, activate pagers, activates volunteer station sirens, etc. The sound they make is a reedy sounding 'BEEEEEEP-BOOOOOOOP' If you've ever watched the television show 'Emergency', the tones that sound just before a call is dispatched are quick calls. Motorola developed the first such system.**

**Rapid Extrication: A method of quickly removing a critically injured patient from a wrecked vehicle. The patient is carefully but quickly removed from the vehicle by several rescue personnel, keeping his/her spine stable by having one rescuer hold C-spine and other rescuers on either side 'cradle' the patient by passing and interlocking their arms beneath the patients back as they are removed from the vehicle. The backboard is positioned as close to the vehicle as possible, the rescuer at the patient's head (The one holding C-spine) controls movement (1-2-3-LIFT, etc). Used when the patient has life threatening injuries that precludes taking time to put the patient in a K.E.D.**

**Rear Mount: An aerial ladder or aerial platform that has the base of the ladder (The turntable) mounted on the rear portion of the unit. The great majority of modern straight frame aerial ladders (Aerial ladders that aren't tractor-trailers) are rear mounts.**

**Rescue: Fire department verbal shorthand for a rescue truck. These units can be very simple rigs...a pick-up chassis with a utility body...or extremely sophisticated units costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, unequipped, with another couple of hundred thousand dollars or so worth of gear on board. All usually carry a good sized generator (I know of rigs that have 25kw generators on board) lights (The larger rigs have pneumatically raised light towers that, in a pinch, can illuminate a football field) air bags, air tools, air masks, compressors, every kind of hand tool and forcible entry tool known to man, a big gasoline powered circular saw(Or two) with blades for metal, concrete, and wood, more kinds of rescue tools then I have room to list, protective clothing and equipment, an extensive inventory of medical equipment...and the Hurst Tool. _GOTTA have the Hurst tool!_**

**Reverse Lay: Operation where the engine stops at the fire, the crew pulls anything they might need at the scene (Ladders, attack lines, a gated wye (Fitting that splits one large hose line into two smaller lines, with gate valves for the smaller lines), air masks, forcible entry tools, etc, off of the rig. The driver then lays out to the hydrant. The rest of the crew connects the supply line and the attack lines to the gated wye; the engine is connected to the hydrant and pumps to the scene. Used when the hydrant is beyond the fire, and the next in engine is more than a few minutes out. I've seen a crew drop all of their equipment, lay out and have water flowing (at an actual fire, not a training exercise) in under three minutes.**

**Rig: Fire department slang for ANY piece of fire or rescue apparatus. Dates back to the days of horse drawn equipment.**

**Running Assignment: **** The specific engine, truck, rescue, and truck companies assigned to respond to a given location in event of a fire, rescue, or medical call. Usually set up through at least a third, and in larger cities, a fifth alarm. Almost _ALL modern departments use a computer aided dispatch system that, when an address is typed in, brings up the full 1st through 3rd alarm assignments for that location. If a fire is already in progress, and some, or even all of the units are unavailable, it automatically lists the next nearest units, in order of response. When move-ups are made, the system automatically (After the move up is entered in the computer) makes the appropriate changes to the running assignment, making the relocated unit due on calls that would normally be handled by the unit it is replacing. _**

S

**Siamese: (1) A hose connection that allows two or more hose lines to be connected to a single inlet, allowing several lines to supply a master stream device, sprinkler system, or standpipe system. Usually, they are equipped with gate valves on the inlets. Portable devices such as portable deluge sets have the Siamese built in as an integral part of the device. Permanently piped devices (Permanently mounted deluge sets, basket nozzles, bed pipes) have the Siamese mounted on the rear or side of the rig. The Siamese for a fly pipe is usually placed on the ground near the rear of the rig when the pipe is in service at a fire. ****(2) Hose connections that allow a pumper to supply water to a building's sprinkler or standpipe system. A sprinkler system or standpipe Siamese is usually on the wall of the building the sprinkler or standpipe system is installed in, though sometimes they are on a pipe near the parking lot. In event of a fire, the engine drops a line at the Siamese (Called the sprinkler connection or standpipe connection, depending on the type of system), lays a line out to the hydrant, and pumps into the system.**

**Silent Response: To respond to an alarm under nonemergency conditions, without lights and sirens. Usually shortened to simply 'Silent' on the radio (As in 'Engine 28, reduce to a silent and respond in to take a report')**

**Snorkel:  A piece of aerial fire equipment using two jointed booms, with a basket on the end of the top boom. Built in lengths from 50 to 150 feet. First developed by the Chicago Fire Department in 1958. The shorter booms were often mounted on an engine, the larger ones on specialized chassis, much like an aerial ladder. These rigs are, for the most part, being replaced by aerial platforms.**

**Soft Sleeve:  A short section of large diameter (Usually 4 or 5 inch) hose that is used to connect a pumper to a hydrant. Usually kept folded or rolled, and preconnected to the intake.**

**Spider Strap: (1) A wide nylon web type strap system consisting of a center strap with four or five pairs of straps connected to it. Used to secure an injured patient to a backboard. The two end-most sets of straps are attached to the center strap at about a 45-degree angle, the other sets are attached at a 90-degree angle. Each strap has Velcro at the ends, and is threaded through the slots on the edges of the backboard, tightened, and velcroed down. The straps are secured, from top to bottom, across the patient's shoulders, chest, hips, thighs, and lower legs._ ALWAYS used in conjunction with a_**** C-collar and head blocks****_  _****(2) The slang term for the straps that secure a fire fighter's face piece (Of his air mask) to his head. Usually shortened in this usage to 'spider'**

**Spike: To insert the end of the IV tubing into the port on the bottom of a bag of IV fluid. So called because of the large plastic spike on that end of the tubing.**

**Squirrel: (1) Slang term for an individual who is extremely enthusiastic about the fire/rescue service.****(2) Slang term for an individual who responds to a call while off duty. ****(3) Slang, verb, to respond to a call while off duty. (He squirreled the call and had CPR going when we got there).**

**Sprinkler System: An automatic fire protection system consisting of flower shaped sprinkler heads connected to pipes at the ceiling of a building. The heads are equipped with a fusible link that holds the head's valve closed, this link is set to break at a given temperature, opening the head and releasing water onto the fire. The 'blossom' of the flower is a deflector that distributes the water in a wide spray pattern. The system can be supplied by an engine pumping into a connection outside the building (See Siamese) These systems are right up there with sliced bread and the wheel...many buildings, and lives have been saved by them.  Interesting note...Contrary to television and movies, (A), only the heads nearest the fire open and (B) you can't just turn a sprinkler system on. **

**Standpipe: A system of pipes and hose connections in a large building equipped with a connection on the exterior of the building that allows an engine to connect to and supply water under pressure to the system. This allows Firefighters to stretch hose lines to areas of the building that are to distant for them to stretch a line from the engine. Most of the connections have a hose line already attached (Called a 'House Line') but the first thing a crew does is disconnect that...They have specialized packs (Called, somewhat confusingly, high rise packs because they were originally developed for high-rise buildings ) consisting of 100 to 150 feet of 1 ¾ inch hose a nozzle, and fittings. In a large building with a large fire going in it, several of these packs can be utilized.**

**Stang: A particular brand of deluge set characterized by the single helical (Spiral) pipe leading to the nozzle rather that the two curved pipes utilized by most deluge sets. Extremely high quality, very effective, and it looks _really cool mounted on top of a rig!  _**

**Steamer Connection: The large hose connection on a fire hydrant. Usually 5 or 6 inches in diameter.**

**Stick: (1) Slang term for an aerial ladder. Dates back from the days when all aerial ladders were constructed of wood. ****(2) The act of starting an IV...when a paramedic starts an IV, he is said to have 'gotten a stick'.**

**Straight Tip: A funnel shaped nozzle that discharges water in a straight, solid stream. Utilized most often on 2 ½-inch hand lines and master stream devices. Designated by the size of the opening on the discharge end of the nozzle... ½ ", ¾" 1 ½ ", etc. A straight stream from a big straight tip on a deluge set or basket nozzle can, and has been used to knock unstable walls back into the building so they won't collapse out into the street, endangering personnel.. They are threaded on each so several can be connected together smallest on top. When this is done, the connected nozzles are known as '****Stacked Tips'. Water can be flowed through them in this configuration, if you want to go to a larger tip, you just shut down long enough to remove the smaller tip, or tips, then open it back up. **

**Submarine:  Term used**** when an unrestrained driver or front seat passenger slides partially off of the seat and beneath the dash in a traffic accident.**

**T**

**Ten Codes: Radio codes, starting with the number 10 (10-4, 10-8, 10-20, etc) used to designate some types of calls, and designate certain actions or conditions. Used for brevity more than secrecy...it's no great trick getting hold of a list of a given departments ten codes. Actually going out of fashion as more and more departments go to plain English on the radio. Atlantis uses some ten codes. The ones that will probably be used in the fanfics are used below.**

**                                          Atlantis Fire Department 10-codes **

10-1 Unable to copy radio transmission                      10-12 Stand By

10-2 Your traffic is clear                                              10-13 Progress Report

10-4 Ok, or affirmative                                                 10-20 Location

10-6 Busy                                                                      10-22 Cancel your Response

10-7 Unit out of service                                                10-23 Arrived on Scene

10-8 Unit in service or available                                   10-24 completed last assignment

10-9 Repeat traffic                                                         10-50 Vehicle Accident

**Timmons Splint: A splint constructed of vinyl with enclosed wooden slats to provide rigidity. Made in several sizes for arms and legs, designed to be wrapped around the fractured limb and secured with Velcro straps. (Velcro is _ANOTHER invention that is right up there with sliced bread! Originally, these things were made of cloth and were secured with a narrow leather thong that was threaded through metal eyelets, with the excess wrapped around and around and around the splinted limb. We still had a few of those museum pieces when I was still running fire calls. They were a __pain to use. One of those could __NOT have been used the way a modern Timmons is used in the fanfic._**

**Tower: Verbal shorthand for a Tower Ladder or Elevating Platform.**

**Traction Splint: A splint used on a fractured femur. Consists of a metal frame with straps that secure the leg, a harness for the foot, and windlass that is connected to the harness and cranked down to pull traction on the leg. This pulls the broken ends apart (In a Femur fracture, the bone ends usually try to over ride each other) and keeps them lined up. One catch...it can't be used if there is also a knee injury, and/or a tib-fib (Lower leg) fracture.**

**Trauma: Technical term for any physical injury to the body caused by outside forces (Accident, gunshot, etc)**

**Triage: (1) At an incident scene with multiple injured patients, to separate the patients into groups by severity of their injuries, with the worst getting treated and transported first. Color codes are used. Red= Critical life threatening , Yellow = non life threatening serious**** to moderate, green =minor, gray= DOA. At major incidents, such as a bus accident, color-coded tags are attached to the patients clothing so incoming personnel will know the status of each patient. ****(2) The sector of responsibility tasked with triage at an incident scene where the Incident Command System is being utilized ****(3) The fire or EMS officer in charge of triage at a incident scene**

**Tractor Drawn: What most people think of when they think 'Ladder truck' An aerial ladder mounted on an articulated chassis (Tractor-trailer) with the trailer wheels steerable as well as the front wheels of the tractor. The rear steering position is known as the ****tiller, with the person riding that position known as the ****tiller man. A good driver-tiller team can put one of these rigs almost _anywhere. A favorite trick is, when getting back to the station, for the tiller man to crank his wheel hard to whatever side the station's on...the rig actually rolls down the street with the trailer at about a 60 or 70 degree angle (Or more) to the tractor. The driver then just has to straighten the tractor up as he's backing in...the trailer's already aimed for and lined up with the bay door!_**

**Truck or Truck Company: When firefighters speak of a 'Truck', they are actually referring to an aerial ladder or platform. In fire department terminology, A Truck Company is responsible for ventilation, forcible entry, getting utilities shut off, rescue, and just about anything that doesn't involve actually putting water on the fire.**

**Turntable: The rotating metal platform that the base of an aerial ladder or aerial platform is mounted on, allowing the ladder to be turned in a full circle.**

**Two Piece Engine Company: An engine company with two pumpers assigned to it. They respond together to all calls, at a structure fire the first rig (Known as the ****'Wagon') which carries most of the crew, drops a line at the hydrant or water source, lays in, and the crew attacks the fire. The second piece...Known as the 'Engine', usually with a driver only, takes the hydrant and pumps to the wagon. The terms engine and wagon date back to the time of steam-powered pumpers, when _all engine companies were two piece companies, the 'Wagon' was indeed a horse drawn hose wagon, and the 'Engine' was a steamer. Going out of favor, most engine companies now days are single piece companies, though some cities still run a few two-piece companies._**

U/V/W

**Ventilate: (1)  To open up a burning building  in order to vent smoke and hot gasses, allowing the firefighters working inside the building to more easily reach and knock down the fire. If the attic is involved, or the fire is in a single story building, or on th top floor, the roof is opened up directly above the fire, or as nearly so as possible. In fires on the lower floors of a multi story building (An apartment building, for example) The roof may be opened, windows taken out to vent smoke and heat from the upper floors to make it easier to search for and rescue any trapped occupants. In a house fire, windows will be taken out in the involved section of the house. This not only improves conditions within the building, but also helps to limit fire spread and helps to prevent flashover and back drafts (****2) To assist a patient who is having difficulty breathing by using mechanical means, such as a bag valve mask or demand valve, both of which force high concentrated Oxygen (95-100%) into the patients lungs. If the patient ins unconscious, they will most likely also be ****intubated (A breathing tube is placed in the patient's trachea). The ventilation device is then connected directly to the tube, allowing Oxygen to be delivered directly into the lungs.**

**Water flow or water flow alarm: An alarm signal sent to a monitoring company automatically when a sprinkler system activated, triggered by a drop in water pressure in the system. The monitoring company then notifies the appropriate fire department. (Also see ****Alarm Activation) When dispatching the call, the fire dispatcher will announce the type of call as 'A Water flow alarm'. If it is confirmed that the system is flowing water...that  a head has popped, and is flowing...then the call is dispatched as  'A sprinkler system activation'**

**Working Fire: Technically, it means that all personnel at the scene are being utilized, but to a firefighter it means fire or smoke showing from the building, and that actual firefighting is about to take place. When a firefighter says that a fire was a working fire, he or she means that there was fire and/or smoke showing from the building, and that some effort had to be expended to control and extinguish it.**


	5. The Last Night of Normal

CHAPTER 3

The Last Night of Normal

Disclaimers and A/N. As always, I don't own Lizzie McGuire, or any of the characters. Kenny and the rest of Station 28's crew are all mine. This one is the final 'set-up' chapter; basically, everyone's going along with their lives, never dreaming that they are going to change drastically in about twelve...or fewer hours.

Again, guys, I'm really sorry it took so long to get this update to ya...thanks for you patience!

The first raindrops had started speckling Kenny's windshield just before he reached Severna Road, about seven miles from Atlantis Fire Station 28, and now rain had transformed the colorful Old Dominion landscape, quickly turning the bright spring greens and golds into a soggy black and white photograph. A steady rain was smacking angrily against the windshield, sounding for all the world like a militant pan of popping Jiffy Pop as Kenny hung a right of Hensley Road onto Sir Thomas Dale Highway. Shiny-wet pavement kicked fun-house reflections back at him as his wipers swip-swopped monotonously back and forth across the windshield. Passing cars dragged clouds of spray along behind them as orange glimmers pinpointed the banks of sodium vapor streetlights and security lights that a premature dusk had kicked awake early.

He crossed the bridge spanning the CSX tracks, made the light at Martindale Parkway on the green, and hung a left off of Sir Thomas Dale Highway, hazarding a glance at the front of Station 28 as he did so. All three of the glass bay doors were down, the gleaming yellow trimmed white rigs assigned to all three of the station's companies...Engine 28, Truck 4, and Rescue 3...visible behind them.

 Another glance at the stereo's digital clock told him it was twenty-five minutes to six. He was twenty-five minutes early, not at all unusual for firefighters coming on shift. Fire/Rescue tended to be one of those jobs staffed by people who _wanted to be there. Not, if the weather was any indication that this was shaping up to be a fun twenty-four hours, especially if they ended up being busy, and they __would be busy. Rescue 3 just didn't__ have slow shifts. _

Kenny followed a slender ribbon of blacktop around to the parking area behind the station and swung the big Chevy into an empty space next to Gary Barnette's burgundy and silver Ford Explorer Sport. The popcorn noises upgraded themselves to exploding bubble wrap as he shut down and climbed out of his ride, he grabbed his shift bag, hip-shoved the door closed, and bolted towards the shelter of the huge redwood deck that opened off the rear of the station's second floor just as a volley of gumball-size raindrops splattered against the windshield. Kenny made it beneath the shelter of the deck an instant before the sudden downpour bounced raindrops knee high off the parking lot. Rain thundered onto the redwood planks above his head as he punched the code into the back door's combination lock, pulled the heavy smoked glass door open, and walked into the rear of the apparatus bay. 

The rain roar diminished to a distant rumble as the door swung closed and latched with a subtle 'snick'. He was instantly engulfed by the distinctive aroma...a not at all unpleasant combination of diesel exhaust, tool oil, smoke and sweeping compound mixed with a dozen or so other subtle aromas...unique to a fire station apparatus bay as he walked towards the radio room, situated at the front of the station on the left side of the bay,. The odor was as native to fire stations as sweat and liniment were to a locker room.

Several 'A' shift fire fighters were down stairs, Stu 'Studley' Rettiger standing with a foot propped up on Engine 28's tailboard, ever-present cup of coffee in hand. Vic Royce was in front of him, thumbs hooked in his pockets as the two of them carried on a conversation.

 "_Man, it's getting' nasty out..." Kenny announced to nobody in particular as he walked towards the front of the station._

 Vic looked up and over, then looked at Stu, jerked his head towards Kenny and said, in a loud good natured, voice...'Told ya 'B' shift was getting really desperate...I mean they'll let _any one work..._

"I _heard that..." Barrel shaped, black haired Russ Leavitt informed them as he walked around from the right side of the engine. Russ, like Kenny, was just coming on duty and was driving Engine 28's big Emergency One Hurricane pumper this shift. He and Stu, in fact, had just finished shift change a minute or so before Kenny arrived. _

"Don't worry, Russ..." Kenny threw in, stopping at the rear of Truck 4's rig, resting a hand on a chrome grab rail and adding his two cents worth to the lighthearted war of insults. "Those who can't do, teach...those who can do neither_...diss"  _

Stu replied to Kenny's learned comment by cheerfully suggesting that he add several complicated acts of contortion, followed by a definite physical impossibility, to his daily regimen of exercise.

"Absolutely _no class..." Russ noted in mock disgust, shaking his head in a slow, exaggerated fashion. He looked over at Kenny "What __is this place comin' to when we have to follow in the paw-steps of such..." He looked over at Vic and Stu, then again shook his head. "Riff-raff."_

"You're only jealous because we're beautiful..." Stu deadpanned at them, following it up with another swallow of coffee

 "_That idn't even worth commenting on..." Kenny noted. Stu simply looked over at Vic, and said 'See...we leave them speechless...' as Kenny shook his head, chuckled, and rolled his eyes. He then looked over at the two 'A' shift firefighters. "You guys been busy?" _

"Steady...engine and truck both caught a couple of runs each, Rescue ran five or six."  More aromas...these of the stomach-rumble creating variety...drifted down the steps from the kitchen. "Your compatriot in crime's upstairs, by the way...he's apparently responsible for the foul odors coming outa the kitchen..."

"They allowed Gary into the kitchen...around sharp objects? Now _that's scary..."  Kenny noted in mock alarm, knowing full well that, when Gary Barnette cooked, several off going firefighters inevitably hung around and ate supper. Any rumors anyone has __ever heard about firefighters generally being excellent cooks and fire station meals being among the best on the planet are entirely true. "What's he cookin?"_

I don't know but what _ever it is, if I have to smell it much longer..." Russ commented, patting his belly two handed. "I may have at my boots with some salt and a little mustard..."_

"Yeah..." Vic continued. "He showed up about four thirty, chased everyone out of the kitchen, threatened us with dismemberment if we interrupted his creative efforts, and started putting it together..."

Kenny turned his head towards the passageway separating the tool room and radio room and leading to the stairwell, raised his head, and snuffed deeply of the onion, garlic, and beef aroma cascading down the steps. "Oh man. I'm gaining _serious weight tonight; I can see that coming now...." He walked over to the door to the glass enclosed radio room. A counter ran along three sides of the room. A radio console and desk mike shared counter space with a pair of police scanners, a HP PC that was networked with the Fire Department's main frame as well as the computers in the city's other 51 stations, and a HP high speed printer. A multiline telephone also sat on the counter, next to it was an intercom box. Kenny put his shift bag on the counter, finger-stabbed the intercom's alert button, then pressed the talk button._

"Barnette...You planin' on poisonin' our asses tonight or what? That smells _seriously nasty, man..."_

There was a wait of several seconds as Gary made his way to the upstairs intercom box, located on the pass-thru counter between kitchen and dayroom.

"There's some left over baloney in the 'fridge, asshole..." Gary replied good naturedly...Kenny was among Gary's closest friends. "...Can't be more'n...ohhhhh...six, eight months old...."

"Erk..." Kenny replied, screwing his face into a comedy-grimace that, for just an instant, made him look just like his younger sister when _she comedy-mugged in reply to something. "What you cookin' up there, anyway..."_

"Rice, beef 'n gravy..." Gary informed him. Kenny's stomach rumbled in anticipatory approval. Gary had two methods of cooking the succulent concoction...the quick way, using all canned ingredients...not at all shabby, the way he did it...and the hard way. The latter method involved stew beef, onions, crushed garlic, and a few ingredients that Gary refused to disclose. If he'd gotten there at four thirty, that meant he'd _started at home, cooking the stew beef, and transferring the partially finished delicacy to the station. The Hard Way. A meal that wouldn't be at all out of place in some five star restaurants. _

"Oh, man, I picked the right day to work OT..." He remembered Kate's comment about Gary. "You, by the way, have apparently been labeled Somewhat Hunk like by Kate...she suggested that Pattie might have to use extreme measures to protect you from marauding bands of Amazons, and dared to suggest that I didn't quite measure up..." In the back ground, he heard Jimmie Link jibe 'Amazons...Where?...WHERE!?!'.

"At least _ONE of you two has decent taste...I hope you told her Hi for me in advance..." Gary __also had a sixteen-year-old sister, Kim, who cheered for one of Hillridge's archrivals, James Wyatt. The two girls, were in fact, fairly close friends, and were both treated like surrogate sisters, daughters, or nieces by __all of Station 28's firefighters._

"She was too busy telling me she didn't have a bad attitude..." Kenny told him, hoping as he said it that Kate had at least briefly thought about what he'd told her. "You, Jimmie, and Ed ready to do shift change so we can let those two losers go home..." Kenny heard Gary key the intercom upstairs and then heard another voice in the background. Gary chuckled in reply at a comment made by Jimmie Link, who, at 36, was the station's patriarch.

"Link says to tell you that you should pray that, at some point in your life you're a quarter as good as the pimple he popped on his butt this morning; that you should be honored and privileged that 'A' shift, the fact that they're getting ready to leave notwithstanding, allowed you the honor of their company; and that, thank you very much, he _and Fulcher are staying for supper..." There was a slight commotion, then Jimmie Link's voice burst forth from the speaker. _

Yeah, youngster..." Kenny was among the _youngest of Station 28's crew. "We will allow you, by the mere virtue of being in our company, to soak up a fraction of our vast store of knowledge..."_

"Yeah, but knowledge about _what..."_

Oh, if only you knew, young Saunders..." Jimmie told him."Hey, we'll be right down. Drug an' IV boxes are sealed by the way, double checked 'em about five minutes ago, go on an' start checkin'the medical stuff out...Gary an' Eddie've already done the driver's shift change"

"Gotcha, Jim." Kenny replied before walking back out of the radio room, and cutting across the apparatus floor towards the big Mack-Saulsbury heavy rescue rig that was crouching, as if ready to pounce, in the far bay.

"Russ, we eatin' _good tonight...he's doing Rice and Beef..." Kenny called over to Russ Levette who was busy checking Engine 28's oil and other vital fluids._

"Oh, _man" Russ noted in near ecstasy. _

"Your waistline won't handle it, man..." Vic jibed at him, getting an equally good-natured barb in return. Kenny shook his head at the two men's antics as walked around the rig to the turnout gear rack along the wall. He grabbed his gear off the rack, walked to the cab, and placed the folded combination of day boots and bunker pants next to the open passenger door. He then pulled himself up in the cab long enough to swap his helmet for Jim's, and finally removed Jim's turnout coat from the seat, replacing it with his, outer liner facing up, so he could just grab it and yank it on. Kenny was now officially on duty. 

He neatly folded Jim's gear together and slid it over to the rack, then walked around the front of the rig, ducking around the power cord looping from a ceiling mounted reel to a receptacle beneath the driver's door,  and opened the double doors of the big rescue truck's left front compartment. He glanced at the Zoll Monitor-defibrillator, making sure that the green 'On Charge' and 'Battery ready' lights were glowing, then dragged it partway out, and checked the accessory pouch for spare battery, leads, gel, and electrodes. Another quick glance confirmed that the big, orange Tidewater EMS Council drug and IV boxes were indeed sealed. Four green spare oxygen bottles were nestled in PVC tubes below the shelf holding the trauma kit and the bright blue jump bag, their valve stems sealed with yellow tape to indicate that they were, in fact, full bottles. The shelf above the jump bag and airway bag held the burn kit, OB kit, and Broslow Bag.  The bottom part of the compartment...actually a traverse compartment that also opened on the other side of the unit...held five bright yellow plastic backboards, an aluminum scoop stretcher, a Reeves stretcher, two sets of Hare Traction Splints (Adult and pediatric) and a long vinyl bag containing an assortment of padded board splints. Two gray plastic boxes...one containing five folded spider straps, and the other containing belts, all for the backboards, resided just above the backboard compartment. The gray pouches containing Timmons' splints, a set of air splints, and a bright orange vinyl pouch containing vacuum splints, shared space with the spider strap and belt boxes. Just above them were three green vinyl bags holding K.E.D.s. On charge and' ready' lights also glimmered from the two Laerdal portable suction units. Other shelves held even _more equipment. And this was just one of __ten compartments on the rig. Kenny could, if asked, go to any of the ten, and put his hand on __any of the hundreds of items the rig carried._

Kenny pulled the jump bag and airway bags out, setting them on the floor, then dragged the big trauma kit out and set it down next to the jump bag. He unzipped the jump bag's cover and popped open the latches for the trauma kit, checking the contents of both for presence and quantity. He'd just opened the jump bag and cracked the valve on the O-two bottle, nodding with satisfaction as the needle on the small gauge jumped over to about 1650 PSI, when he heard an enthusiastically sarcastic 'He _works...actually on occasion, performs __actual physical labor..."_

There was a sibilant 'psssssss' as Kenny cut the O-two off then cracked the discharge to drain the regulator.

"And he actually manages to _almost give the impression he knows what he's doing..."_

Kenny, then turned and, looking over his shoulder, grinned at his two cohorts, flipped a quick middle finger at them before using that _same finger to scratch his head as he gave them a classic Steve Urkle 'Did I do __thayet' expression._

"_Real nice..."    Jimmie Link said to Kenny before looking over at Gary Barnette. ""I'm __injured Gary...the youth of today...they have __no respect..." _

"You can dress 'em up..." Gary started, leaving the well-known saying unfinished as Jimmie continued.

"...And _you..." To Kenny. "...How can you accuse that dear sweet child..."_

"_Kate??"_

_"Of course...dear sweet child of having a bad attitude..."_

"She was _deeply into the 'Diva'__ mode today..."_

"Our lovely little Kate..." Jimmie shook his head. "A 'Diva?...this, I guess, is why I'm glad I have boys..." Jimmie continued, still shaking his head. "I don't envy the two of you, trying to figure out girlfriends, _and sisters..._

"Oh, an' I think I can speak for Gary, too, we gave up on _that ages ago...just nod and say'Mmm-hmmm at the right places..." Gary was exaggeratedly nodding in agreement. "You're relieved, by the way, Jim..." Kenny told Jimmie Link as he stood up and turned towards the two other paramedics, towering over Gary's five ten and Jimmie Link's five eleven._

"Thank ya Kenny..." Jim told him gratefully. Jimmie Link was brown haired, built like a cinderblock, and had a round, fleshy face. Hazel eyes brimming with intelligence...and a bit of mischief...twinkled astride a fleshy nose. Gary, other than height, was cut from much the same mold as Kenny. Blonde-haired, blue eyed, and sinewy with a triangular face and a bushy mustache, he had an  easy-going personality and a dry, sarcastic wit. _BUT, woe unto anyone who earned his scorn._

"So far, looks like we're in good shape..." Kenny told them, nodding towards the compartment.

"Should be good to go...we haven't turned a wheel since about three o'clock, an' that was a BLS transport, so we really haven't used anything..." A particularly violent clatter of wind-whipped rain rattled against the bay doors, interrupting Jim mid sentence. Kenny whistled softly as all three of them looked through the rain-streaked glass panels towards T Dale Highway to see a fuzzy, blurry, rain bleared parade of homeward bound vehicles. Rain was slamming into the apron and roadway hard enough to form a knee-high curtain of mist as it bounced. Buildings on the other side of the five-lane roadway were faded to shadowy ghosts by the downpour, which was transmitting a muffled, subway train tumble through the bay doors.

"_That keeps up, it won't be quiet for long..." Kenny noted. "Where's Eddie, by the way..."_

"Upstairs, guarding supper..."

"Lord help us all, It won't be _any left..." Kenny jibed, again managing a momentary uncanny resemblance to Kate as he rolled his eyes._

"I told him if he so much as dipped a finger in it, _HE was ridin' in next day if we catch Renelia..." Jimmie noted, referring to one of their skankier frequent flyers, who apparently conserved water by limiting her showers to one or two per decade. Her list of claimed ailments was endless, their legitimacy farcical, and it was widely believed that she had a book of obscure diseases that she consulted before each of her many calls to the Atlantis Emergency Communications Center._

 "Changin' the subject..." He looked over at Kenny. "...How many trauma sticks you need to keep from having to spend a lovely day at the training center puncturing disembodied plastic arms?

"Two..." he replied, also holding up two fingers..

"Y'all'll catch a ten-fifty in this mess, I can just about bet it..."

Kenny nodded in agreement. "This keeps up, I could end up gettin' both of them outa the way in one fell swoop..."

Kenny had no clue, of course, that, in a little over twelve hours, events would burn that off-handed comment into his brain forever.

Jo McGuire had pondered on the prospect of cooking for six teenagers all day. Miranda was bringing her boyfriend, and (She'd thought this with a wistful smile...her babies were growing up) Melina would definitely be over here with Matt. Six of them. Not all that different, Jo thought, shaking her head, from trying to cook for the Normandy invasion force. Pizza would be the best move. Teenagers _thrived on pizza. Gordo had insisted (Even as he set up his video camera, asked Lizzie if she needed anything else approximately every five seconds, and gazed adoringly at her on numerous occasions) that the free pizza was, in fact, his primary motivation for being there. That comment had simply made Lizzie shake her head and warble a giggly '__Right, Gordo' at her boyfriend._

Jo had been right on all counts. The kids had fallen upon the McGuire home on Orchard Oak Drive only an hour or so after school got out for the day, and had been at it for over six _hours now, running on Pizza, Pepsi, and that infinite reserve of run-away energy that only teenagers apparently get to enjoy._

She stuck her head out of the kitchen, smiled at the four teens sitting on the couch, and shook her head lovingly as Lizzie said 'It's _still not right', her pretty face pensive with concentration._

"Lizzie, it's _perfect!" Jo McGuire told her daughter. She leaned back against the doorframe, a dishrag dangling from her right hand. Lizzie turned to look at her and said 'But you're my __mom...you're __required to say that..."_

"Lizzie..." Matt McGuire began from the kitchen, where he and Melina Bianco were seeing to it that the last couple of pieces of pizza didn't go to waste. 'Trust me on this...a drunk chimp couldn't have done any better', his comment cut short by a giggly 'Shut up, Matt' from Melina, who then called out 'Lizzie, don't listen to dweeb-boy here, you're awesome.

_I've been telling you that all __day..." __ David Gordon began, only to be cut off as Lizzie looked at him, grinned, and said 'But you're my __boyfriend...You're __required to say that to keep me from inflicting serious and painful injury to you..."_

"Oh...thanks for explaining that to me, McGuire..."  Gordo told her in that cheerfully sarcastic matter-of –fact tone that he had elevated to an art form. They had first watched the tapes of her practices that morning. Lizzie had critiqued and dissected her performance unmercifully as Gordo, Miranda, and Miranda's boyfriend Larry Tudgeman strained their eyes trying to see the non-existent flaws that she claimed existed throughout her routine.

Then, as they ripped into the first Papa John's pizza to buy the farm, Lizzie had continued practicing in the McGuire's' still under construction Florida Room, which was doubling as a rehearsal studio on this particular nasty, rainy April evening. Gordo had brought his video camera, setting it up on a tripod in the Florida room and again recording Lizzie's routine as she practiced. Lizzie would do the routine, and then watch the tape, critiquing herself, cutting her own performance apart as if she was trying out to dance on Miss Spears' next world tour rather than for a high school cheering squad.

Everyone in the McGuire homestead on that rainy evening would be hearing 'Crazy' in his or her sleep for the next _month. Everyone but Lizzie thought her performance was somewhere on the far __side of amazing._

Gordo gazed adoringly at_ the television, watching his girlfriend twirl and twist in all but perfect harmony to the catchy, rhythmic beat of 'Crazy'. Her blond hair twirled and fanned, catching highlights from the overhead lights in. He just shook his head, a silly half smile on his face._

 "Well, required or not, _this comment is entirely voluntary...__Wow!!!  Unbe__lievable, McGuire!..." Gordo gushed enthusiastically from his perch on the comfortably worn beige sofa that he, Lizzie, Miranda, and for the last several months, Tudge had spent countless hours on. The music stopped, pausing on-screen Lizzie in mid spin, her face a pretty study in concentration, her long blond hair a gold spun fan frozen in mid-twirl behind and beside her. Blue-trimmed white running shorts showed off her shapely, tanned legs while a dark blue, slightly oversized 'Tommy Girl' 'T' shirt was freeze-framed with it's tail sweeping out and around  in a graceful swirl.._

"It _reeks" A chirpy voice noted in critical self-appraisal. Gordo rolled his eyes, then looked next to him, where only a millimeter or two away, the video's star sat wearing the very same pair of white track shorts and  blue 'Tommy Girl' 'T' shirt. Her hair was a spun-gold fan cascading across her shoulders in exercise-induced disarray. A faint sheen of perspiration, rather than making her look tired, gave her a glow of young, lovely health. A smile played across Gordo's lips as he thought, for the millionth time that, A; he was one of the luckiest guys alive, and B; Lizzie was absolutely, adorably beautiful. _

Gordo gently pulled her over closer to him with his left arm, which was around her shoulders. "Explain to me, McGuire, just exactly how and where it reeks." He said deadpan. Lizzie aimed the VCR's remote towards the entertainment center, thumbed the slo-mo button, and said 'Watch my pom poms..."

"Every chance I get..." Gordo noted dryly, earning himself a light hearted slap across the chest and a giggly '_Gordo'!" from Lizzie. Miranda Sanchez shook her head, rolled her eyes, and reached over with her left hand to pop him playfully on the back of the head._

"Behave!" Miranda told him. "I really _don't want to have to hurt you tonight..._

Gordo, I _think she means the ones in her hands..."  Larry Tudgeman noted from the other side of the couch, where he was sitting with his left arm around Miranda. Miranda was curled up beside him comfortably, still wearing the jeans and shirt she'd worn to school, her arms around his waist and her head resting on his shoulder, a pairing that, a year or so ago, would have been considered all but impossible. They were now one of two couples that everyone at HHS...even, secretly; many of Kate's crew...were betting strongly would one day walk down the aisle. _

"Thank you, Larry..." The pretty blond half of the other such couple said. "It's nice to know there are a _few gentlemen left..."_

"_Him..?" Miranda noted in mock surprise, her pretty face set in an exaggerated comedy-grimace as she lifted her head, moved her left arm, and pointed a slender finger at her boyfriend. Larry just rolled his eyes skyward, shook his head, and breathed, "I am __hurt...I am __so under appreciated' before taking a sip of the Pepsi in his other hand._

 "What's there to appreciate?" Miranda asked, deadpan, looking over at her two best friends in mock puzzlement.

"I appreciate you, Larry..." Lizzie told him

"Thank you fair maiden...and you do rock by the way..."

"No I _don't..." She noted turning and grimacing at the image on the TV screen. "I'm lopsided..." She stopped mid-sentence, glaring at Gordo for an instant. Gordo looked...genuinely...confused for an instant, saying 'W__hat?' He then looked beside him to see Miranda __also fixing him with a death-stare. "__What!?" Gordo again asked. Next to them, Miranda's glare collapsed as she chuckled at Gordo's stricken puzzlement. _

"I love you..." Lizzie kissed him on the cheek. "But sometimes you are _so clueless..." Gordo just looked even __more confused as he said 'Thanks...I __think' _

"...But look..."  Lizzie nodded towards the screen, "...One_ hand's higher than the other..." She thumbed the reverse button on the remote. Her onscreen image stopped, then jerkily turned back around. "See my left hand..." _

"A _whole half inch" Gordo told her. "And I think it's because of the way you're twirling...The pom-pom in your left hand's swinging in toward you, the other ones swinging out and up."_

"Like it makes any difference...Lizzie, you're too hard on yourself! " Miranda scolded her best friend "_Britney couldn't have done a better job...you can't even __tell watching you, only way I saw it was when you slo-mo'd it"_

"Kate'll notice...he'll find the least little thing to keep me off the squad..."

"Kate'll be too busy making sure everyone's looking at _her to notice anything less than a hurricane." Miranda noted._

Yeah, Lizzie..." Another voice chimed in from behind them. All four heads turned as Matt McGuire walked in from the kitchen. In his right hand was the sole surviving slice of the last of the four extra-large pizzas that Jo had ordered and they had done away with over the preceding six hours. "You _almost don't look spastic," He continued, handily sidestepping the throw pillow hurled in his direction by his sister._

"Lizzie, don't throw pillows at your brother..." Jo McGuire called cheerfully from the big kitchen, where she was overhauling the desolate ruins that were the aftermath of six teenagers in the house at the same time.

"Didn't have a cinder block handy..." Lizzie noted deadpan before raising her eyebrows in enquiry and asking her brother "Really, how'd it look." 

Matt assumed the sarcastically thoughtful pose that had been his trademark since he could walk, cupping his chin in his right hand and rubbing his chin with his thumb. "For a dweeb..."  He quickly tilted his head to the right, escaping the next throw pillow by a millimeter. "...Not bad...seriously though, you've been _dancing for four years now, what's cheering but dancing with words?"  Matt asked her, now standing with arms akimbo. He took a bite of pizza, chewing slowly as he raised an eyebrow at her. _

"He's got a point, McGuire..." Gordo told her.

"Yeah, but..."

"No buts about it, Liz..." Miranda nodded towards the screen. "You are _good."_

"Really?"

"_Really!" Gordo, Miranda, and Tudge exclaimed at the same time. Lizzie turned her head and looked back at her brother._

"Really?"

"If it makes you feel better, you looked like a hyperactive flea on a sugar high..." He shook his head and smiled at his sister. "Don't sell yourself short, Lizzie, much as it pains me to give you a compliment...I can't _believe I'm __saying this...you're __awesome."_

"Thanks Matt..." She said, returning the smile.

Matt had filled out, and grown over three inches over the last three years. Another couple of inches and he would catch up with and then pass his sister. Sometime, over the last three years, Lizzie thought to herself as he looked at her younger brother, my bro has turned into a teenager. I actually envy him sometimes...he's got so much self confidence, but then again, he always has. And he can actually be _human sometimes...not __often mind you, but sometimes And, though I'd __never admit it to him, I can __definitely see what Melina sees in the kid...Even, she chuckled to her self, if he has a __serious  problem, dressing himself.. He was wearing a pair of dark green sweat pants and a bright orange 'T' shirt that just didn't come close to matching the sweats, or, indeed, a__nything in his wardrobe._

"...I like the outfit by the way..." Lizzie told her brother. "What circus is it you're joining again?"

"I'm your replacement...Same one you escaped from..." Her brother countered in the war of insults that had grown to be less of a war of words and more of a light-hearted competition over the last couple of years. He mugged at her, popping an eyebrow upward and smiling sarcastically as if to say 'Top _that!'._

 "I try, Lizzie, but I can't do _anything with him...I've just given up" Another feminine voice spoke up. Matt's expression softened as he looked to see a pretty, blond girl in jeans and a yellow and black CK T shirt walk out of the kitchen. The cute blue-eyed girl shook her head, clicking out an exaggerated 'Tsk Tsk Tsk' as she did so. The expression on her face as she looked at Matt said that her opinion of him was just as high as his was of her.. "...Oh..." She shook her head in faux –frustration, nodding towards the rapidly disappearing slice of pizza "Ya know, I __really had my heart set on __one more slice..."_

"Ya _snooze..." He popped the last morsel of crust in his mouth then turned to look at her "Ya __loose..."  A tiny smile turned the corners of Melina's mouth up. Matt returned the gesture. OMG, Lizzie thought, unable to stifle a giggle as she watched them, he's __blushing!_

Awwwwwwww" Miranda and Lizzie cooed at about the same instant. The two thirteen year olds' heads snapped around, Melina's long blond hair dancing, both pair of eyes_ widening as their faces turned scarlet._

"She/he's _not my girl/boyfriend!!!" The two of them exclaimed simultaneously._

"Sure..." Gordo said skeptically

"Whatever you say, bro..."

"Guys, would any self respecting girl be _seen with..." Melina crossed her arms, turned her head, stared at her alleged non-boyfriend, and paused, looking Matt up and down as if she was trying to figure out just what manor of creature she had happened upon. She finally grimaced, wrinkling her nose, and turned to look at Lizzie and crew.   "...This?"_

"Ok, you've got a point there..." Lizzie told her, unable to stifle yet another giggle at Malina's antics"

"Ready, 'Lina..." Sam McGuire asked as he walked into the room, using the nickname that Matt's long time friend and alleged non-girlfriend had started going by. He had a set of Volvo keys in his hands. 

"Yeah, Mr. McGuire...thanks."

"She can walk, only _sweet things melt in the rain..." Matt noted, receiving a punch in the shoulder from Melina. It didn't take a microscope to see the fact that __both of them were smiling...the hall light glinting from Melina's retainer... and that Matt was planning on riding along. _

Sam McGuire opened the front door, letting the clattering rumble of a full-fledged downpour flood the house.

"Jeeze, it's _still raining...run for it guys..." he told Melina and Matt as they made a break for the driveway, pulling the door closed behind them._

"They are so _cute!!"  Lizzie gushed in a tone of voice that she'd __never, in a million years admit to Matt that she __ever used when referring to him._

"Kind of reminds me of _another couple I seem to recall..." Jo McGuire said. She was standing in the kitchen doorway, smiling mischievously at Lizzie and Gordo._

"Oh no, Mom..." Lizzie scrunched her face up, shaking her head. "We were never like that"

"Oh _really..." Jo McGuire guffawed._

"Not a chance..." Gordo added.

Next to them, Miranda tilted her head, widened her eyes and nodded her head in those quick little nods that just _drip sarcasm_

"Naaaaaa...we_ couldn't have been..." from Gordo._

"Sorry, Gordo, but...you were..." Tudge noted.

"We were?"  From the couple of the moment, to be met with a resounding and simultaneous 'Y_es!' _

"Everyone at Hillridge Jr. High and, until the two of you finally became official last summer, at HHS, was silently. screaming 'Will you go on and _kiss her...or him, as the case may be...Lizzie, there were __bets placed on what month and day you two would finally actually become an official couple..."_

"There _were?!" Lizzie exclaimed, looking stricken..."_

"I was one of the winners, but I had inside information..." Miranda told her.

"Uh..." Lizzie chirped, then turned and looked at her mom.

"I was off by two days..."

"My own mother..." Lizzie noted in mock despair.

Jo McGuire just shook her head, and smiled affectionately at the group of teens, _all of whom she had known since they were infants. "And, sweetie, everyone's right...you've got your routine down __pat, you've done it eighteen or twenty times..."_

"Twenty-three.." Gordo noted. "I counted..." He then turned and all but whispered 'And _you, McGuire, must be about __beat..." Lizzie just nodded, for just a second looking as tired as she was. "You need to rest, Liz..."_

"He's right sweetie, it won't do you a _bit of good if you're too tired to do the routine...in fact...it's a school night, and it's almost..." She glanced at the digital clocks on the VCR and digital cable box. "No, a little __after ten thirty..."_

"Whoa..." Miranda exclaimed. "..Did time get away from us or _what..." She looked over at Larry. "Ok, nerd-boy..." She said affectionately. "Take your Lady home..." The two of them got up and started towards the front door, saying 'See ya Liz...good luck...'_

"Hey, you two doin' the Awful Wawful tomorrow morning?" Lizzie asked them. Miranda and Larry, at least once a week, got up early and pigged out at the Waffle House on Sampson Road, just above Hillridge U's big, wooded campus.

"Yeah...you guys wanna come with us?" Lizzie and Gordo often joined them at what they now thought of as their 'Breakfast Hangout' The Digital Bean was great, but Waffle House kicked serious butt, breakfast wise. They had waffles and arguably the best hash browns on this or any other known planet.

Lizzie pulled her mouth sideways in a prettily thoughtful little smirk. "Better take a rain check this time...I'm about ready to crash right here, I _might make it upstairs before I go unconscious..." She told them, finally admitting how tired she really was. "...And I plan to sleep until the last possible __second in the morning._

"I gotta tweak my Science project..." Gordo noted. He had built a detailed, working cut-away model of a Los Angeles Class sub's power plant.

"_That's not gonna explode, is it?" Miranda asked him, inclining an eyebrow. The Brain Project Fiasco from seventh grade had obtained, from what Matt, Melina, and Lanny said, the status of a legend._

"Fire, rescue, and the EPA will be standing by..." Lizzie told them, stifling a yawn and rubbing Gordo's shoulder as he rolled his eyes and shook his head. 

"There's nothing in it that _can explode..."_

"A couple of those big foam rigs from the airport...and protective suits..." Tudge noted in his dryly sarcastic way as he sidestepped yet _another throw pillow, thrown with near dead on accuracy by Gordo._

Need the Cherokee to get it to school?" Lizzie asked him.

No, McGuire, you've got enough on you tomorrow." Gordo noted. "I'll just drive Mom's car instead of the Camaro in the morning"

"Sure...?"

"Sure...I'll be fine..." Gordo told her, turning his head and looking at her. His heart, for an instant, seemed to swell, flutter, then dance as he gazed at his girlfriend's face. 'Do you understand just how much I love you?' Gordo thought silently as he looked into Lizzie's huge hazel eyes, at that big, beautiful smile. Her bangs were in attractive disarray, and a spray of long blond hair fanned out over her right shoulder and cascaded downward in a fall of spun gold, partially hiding her arm.  'Just how much I _adore you?' Freckles were spattered cutely across her up-tilted nose in a pretty jumble that danced adorably every time she crinkled her nose. And her laugh...I, Gordo thought, would make a total idiot out of myself ten times an hour...a __minute...just to make her laugh._

 If Miranda and Tudge hadn't been standing there, and her mom hadn't been listening, he just might have told her _all of this._

"Ok" Lizzie noted, breaking the spell.    "Hey, Rand, what about your boom box...?"

"Take it with you Liz, I'll just grab it after try-outs" She replied cheerfully. Lizzie replied 'That'll work' as Miranda comedy-yanked Larry towards the door. "Come on, Larry, _one of us needs his beauty sleep __real bad..."_

"Me..." Larry asked, pointing at himself and receiving a lighthearted slap on the shoulder from a grinning Miranda.

"Thanks Mrs. M..." Larry told Jo McGuire as they headed for the door. "Beautiful Maidens, Pizza, entertainment, Pizza...what more can I ask for."

"Yeah..." Miranda shot her boyfriend another of her huge arsenal of comedic grimaces. "Thanks Mrs. McGuire...Ignore him...I usually do..."

Anytime..." Jo looked at the near monsoon still in progress outside. "And you guys be careful going home..."

"We will...see ya tomorrow, Lizzie!"

Gordo got up and walked into the unfinished Florida Room, followed by Lizzie. He quickly demounted the video camera from its tripod, handed the camera to Lizzie, then began folding the tripod as Lizzie put the camera into its case. Above them, rain hammered out a freight train rumble on the Florida room's plastic skylights... The back yard was a study in modern art, distorted by streaks of rain and soft-focused by the misted window walls.

"Man..." Lizzie exclaimed, looking up towards the ceiling. "It's really comin' _down out there!"_

"Really..."  Gordo agreed, following her gaze. He took the camera case as Lizzie said 'Thanks again, Gordo', to be answered with 'Like you even have to _ask me to do anything.'_

Lizzie smiled demurely, then looked at her boyfriend as they walked towards the front door, Gordo telling Lizzie's mom 'Outa here, Mrs. McGuire.

"You be careful, too, Gordo..."

Gordo acknowledged her with a 'will do' as he and Lizzie walked out onto the McGuire front porch. The wind was coming at an angle from behind the big colonial dwelling, affording them a little bit of protection. Still, Lizzie, wearing only shorts and 'T' shirt, hugged herself against the damp chill. Gordo put the camera case down and put his right arm around her tightly, looking over and giving her a quick peck on the cheek. She turned towards him and kissed him on the lips. Suddenly, it wasn't _quite as chilly as it had been._

He almost told her again...actually turned, put the tripod down to join the camera case, then cupped her shoulders with his hands, saying 'Hey Liz...'

"What, Gordo?" Lizzie asked a smile both on her face and in her voice.

"Listen..."

Tires slashed against wet pavement and splooshed through the raging torrent running through the gutter as Sam McGuire's silver Volvo Cross Country swung into the driveway, killing the moment. The two of them turned and watched as Sam McGuire pulled up next to Lizzie's Jeep Cherokee and behind Jo McGuire's Mercedes SUV. The Volvo's doors burst open and two forms ran for the door, splooshing through puddles. 

Gordo reached down and retrieved his equipment as Matt yelled 'Call the Coast guard, and _open the __door!!!' _

Gordo and Lizzie backed apart, Lizzie shaking her head at her brother and father as she twisted the knob and pushed the front door open. Matt shot between them and inside without even bothering to come up with an appropriate insult, Sam just said 'Whoa!', then turned and looked at Gordo, saying 'Gordo, be careful, buddy, water's all the way across the road there at HolyOak and Valewood.

"Thanks Mr. McGuire, I'll watch it..." He looked at Lizzie. "See ya tomorrow McGuire..." He said the two of them touched hands, interlacing their fingers for a second or so as Lizzie mouthed the words 'Be careful' to him. He said 'I will', then turned and made a somewhat less than romantic exit as he bailed towards the blue Z-28 parked at the curb.

"Don't get _wet, Gordo!" She called after him, giggling at his 'Too late!"_

She and her Dad walked back inside, Lizzie thinking 'Thanks guys' sarcastically.      My brother and father, I _think, just managed to interrupt the one guy I love more than anything as he was, I __believe, about to say three little words that would have had me __floating at tryouts tomorrow. Nice job...and ya did it without even __trying._

I'm gonna call it a night guys..." Lizzie called to her parents and brother, getting 'Night, honey' from Sam and Jo, and 'Isn't standing outside in the middle of a rain storm a sign of some serious mental defect?' from Matt.

"We were being ..." Lizzie stopped on the steps, holding the stair rail, looking upward, smiling, and sighing at length._ "Romantic..."_

"'Drowned rat' is Romantic?" She heard Matt ask sarcastically, to be met by Jo's 'Matt...' but Lizzie ignored it. She was too busy thinking 'He almost _said it...my Gordo almost told me he loves me...' She grinned, mugging happily as a little squeal escaped. Then she turned and almost floated up the steps to her room._

It would be a long time before _any of them were as happy as they had been that night._


	6. And Then The World Came Crashin' In

And Then the World Came Crashin' In

Chapter 4

Disclaimers, A/N, and stuff. Still don't own Lizzie McGuire or any of the characters. It starts getting serious guys...the reason I wrote this fanfic the way I did, with the first chap being AFTER the events that take place here.

 I PROMISE I won't keep you guys waiting on this one, and again thanks for all of the kind comments!

"_BLEEEP, BLEEEP, BLEEEP..." Lizzie squinted cutely, whined a sleepy,  Wasanermph??', twisted her covers into a knot as she turned, __then pulled them up over her head, wanting desperately to return to the very pleasant dream that this aggravatingly insistent bleeping had so rudely interrupted. She and Gordo had been walking through an immense field full of beautiful flowers. It had been summer...she had been able to feel the sun's heat on her shoulders, been able to smell the lovely aroma of jonquils. Gordo had stopped, turned, enfolded her with his arms as her heart melted and ran like butter on a griddle. She had gazed into his eyes lovingly, he into hers, he had started to say it..._

"Lizzie...I..."

"_BLEEEP, BLEEEP, BLEEEP..."_

"Ummnnmmmmmhh...Huh?." Lizzie squeaked from beneath the covers. Obviously, it _wasn't going away._

"Sweetie? You planning to get up sometime today by any chance? You better get a move on..." _That pretty much confirmed it...the dream was toast. Lizzie didn't even hear the rest of her mother's comment (After all, she'd been hearing some form of it for ten or so years now). She instead, made a quick recon sortie, tentatively peeking from beneath the covers, turning her head to look through still sleep-bleared eyes at her alarm clock. Her face was puffy with sleep, her long hair twisted and fanned in about a dozen different directions. From somewhere with-in this sleep tangled nest of blond hair her eyes suddenly snapped open wide._

 "Oh my _gosh!!!"_

Luminous green numbers glowed 7: 23 at her. Homeroom was at 7:55, first period at 8:10.

Lizzie tossed the covers, rolling sideways in a light green camisole and PJ bottoms. Mr. Snuggles, her favorite stuffed animal since before pre-school, was catapulted unceremoniously from his usual place of honor beside her pillow to land beneath the tossed coverlet. She lashed out at the alarm clock, smacking the off button, at the same time yelling "MOM...I'm LATE!!!"

"No _kiddin' sweetie..." Jo McGuire appeared in the doorway of Lizzie's room. She shook her head and chuckled despite her minor aggravation at her daughter...Lizzie had suddenly turned into a blond headed typhoon of manic motion, performing the supposedly impossible feat of going in several directions at once._

"_Mommmm..!"  Lizzie slung her closet door open, arms and hands flying and hangers clattering as she sorted through various tops and blouses. "Why didn't..." A violet and dark blue rugby striped t-shirt sailed, hanger and all, towards the bed. "...You wake..." She spun towards her dresser, yanked a drawer open, and grabbed a folded pair of jeans, which joined the t-shirt. "...me __up!!" Another drawer was yanked open, Lizzie pawed through it frantically.._

"Lizzie, sweetie, you told me you were awake twenty minutes ago..." Jo McGuire told her daughter, her voice somewhere between mild irritation and amusement. 

"I _did!?" Lizzie blurted, holding a pair of violet socks aloft as she did so, her mouth pulled sideways in a crookedly puzzled little grimace. Amusement won, hands down, Jo chuckled at her daughter as she said. "__Yes, sweetie, you sat up and told me you were awake..."_

""_Proof that she functions without a brain..." Matt commented from the hallway as he peeked around his mom. "Hi Sis..."  He then said brightly. "You know, you're really...__something...in the morning...'_

"What a sight to have to see as soon as you wake up!!..." Lizzie jibed at Matt., then glared at him. "Now you guys get outa my _room, huh, I gotta __hustle...Matt don't even __think..." she tossed socks and other various and sundry necessities towards the bed. "...about getting in the bathroom..." A pair of satin look blue running shorts and a white T- shirt with a big eyed cartoon girl-child staring out from beneath the words 'Irresistible li'l Angel'on the front sailed towards the bed. "..Until I'm..." She shot her brother a look that would etch glass "__Out...and with that thought in mind..." She shot through the door, weaving between mother and brother like a ball carrier on the way to a winning touchdown. Jo couldn't help but notice, with a little smile, that she quickly tousled Matt's hair as she shot past. The bathroom door 'crump!'ed closed, an instant later the shower splooshed to life, then settled to a to a soggy roar._

"Not _bad..." Matt noted with cheerful sarcasm, looking at his watch. "Two and a half minutes..."_

"And _you, young man, need to get moving, too...you have a bus to catch!" Jo told Matt, patting him lovingly on the back as he headed for the stairs, far more stylishly attired in a dark blue and tan long sleeved shirt and black jeans than he had been the previous evening _

"And with this..._lovely...weather, I'm not even __thinking 'Bus stop' until I absolutely have to..." He noted as he scampered down the steps._

"Miss it you're walking..." Jo McGuire called after him as she too headed down stairs.

Lizzie snagged her cordless phone and thumbed an auto dial number with one hand as she stuffed running shorts, t-shirt, white gym socks and sketchers into her backpack with the other,. The phone's ring tone rasped in her ear. A quick glance at the clock.7:36. She had just finished one of the quickest showers she had _ever taken, dressed in something like two minutes flat, yanked a brush through her damp hair, flailing it into something resembling submission, and quickly applied what little make up she ever wore. I managed __all of the above, she reflected, in barely more than ten minutes....go __ME!!_

 The phone rasped again. Lizzie looked at the window, grimaced, and wrinkled her nose at the sodden gray light that barely deserved the title 'Daylight'. My brother, she thought, was right. It's _still nasty out...their back yard was ghostly, mist-shrouded and suddenly mysterious, the window pane was spotted and speckled with raindrops.Gordo's mom__ finally answered._

"Hi Mrs. Gordon...I have a boyfriend roaming around your house?" She yanked the gym bag's zipper closed, walked around to the other side of her bed, and slipped her feet into a stylishly comfortable pair of shoes.

"Hey, Lizzie!"  Gordo's mom said cheerfully. "Honey, you missed him by a good thirty minutes..." Lizzie shook her head, quickly rolling her eyes and chuckling. 

"Figures, my over-achiever other half...just wanted to see if he changed his mind about needing a ride...."

"Naa, he took the wagon, and left me his Camaro...

"That's what he said he was gonna do...I'll catch him at school, se ya..."

"Hey...good luck this afternoon!"

"Thanks Mrs. Gordon!..." Lizzie said, smiling. She rang off, hung up, than snagged her backpack and hustled out of her room, heading for the stairs.

"_Matt!!"  Jo and Matt McGuire both turned their heads towards the front hallway in time to see Lizzie grab the end of the stairway banister, using it and her momentum to swing her towards the kitchen. "There had better be some Pop Tarts left..." Lizzie deposited the backpack on the kitchen table. "...or I'll..."  She slid to a stop at the kitchen's center island, where Matt was pointing to an open box of frosted cherry pop tarts. "Oh...Good, you get to live another day..." She told him, at the same time yanking a foil-wrapped pair of pastries from the box. She tore the foil open, dropped both pop tarts into the toaster, shoved the lever down, and then took off for the Florida room. Jo and Matt looked on with interest as Matt finished up a glass of orange juice, then asked 'She seem just a little hyper this morning?' as Lizzie jogged through the family room, hanging on to Miranda's boom box_

 "Sweetie, grab a jacket..." Jo called to her, ignoring Matt.

"Purple jacket..?" Lizzie asked, also ignoring her brother.

"Hall closet..."

"Thanks Mom..." She did a quick, hair slinging about face, Jo and Matt heard more hanger-clatter, then she reappeared with the jacket in question slung over her shoulder. Matt timed a loud and meaningful belch to coincide perfectly with his sister's reappearance in the kitchen.

"Euwwwwww..._GROSS!!!" _

"Thank you, I work at it..." Matt noted proudly, raising his eyebrows and mugging at Lizzie as she put the boom box down on the table next to her backpack. Lizzie shot him a look, then rolled her eyes as she shrugged into her jacket just as the toaster went 'clonk! She snagged one of the pop tarts and put it in her mouth, then turned towards the 'fridge, opened it, and rummaged through it, holding the pastry in her mouth as she did so.

"Lizzie did you know that jacket makes you look like a giant bottle of grope Robitussin?" Matt noted sagely as their mother said 'MATT", then said 'Lizzie, sweetie, is that _all you're eating..."_

"MnnmNnnMMmnnmMMMn." Lizzie explained through the pop tart.

"Huh?" From Jo and Matt.

Lizzie backed out of the fridge, pushed the door shut, and turned hanging onto a grapefruit flavored Fruitopia. She removed the pop tart from her mouth and said. "Haven't got time...I'll grab something else at school" To her mom, glancing at the clock on the microwave as she did so. "If I haul freight, I _might make it..." She actually bit and chewed some of the pastry, then headed for the kitchen table, shoving the fruit drink into one of her jacket pockets and taking another bite of pop tart as she snagged her purse, which had been hanging on one of the chairs. She then rolled her right arm to flip it onto her shoulder and grabbed her backpack, saying 'Want a ride, squirt?' to Matt as she also picked up the boom box..." She finished off the last of the pop tart._

"The opportunity to make you unbelievably late!" He enthused sarcastically. "Naaa, get, I've got some...er.._business dealings with some guys on the bus..."_

"Don't even wanna go there..." Lizzie told him, rolling her eyes. "Here, though, make yourself useful..." She continued, holding the boom box out to him. "...as well as majorly undecorative..."

"You're just mad 'cause I got the looks in the family...:" Matt told her, at the same time grabbing the boom box and heading for the front door. Lizzie declined comment, instead performing the same head shake/eye roll that her brother inspired on a regular basis.

"Gone, Mom..." Lizzie said as she too headed for the front door, hearing 'be careful, Lizzie, it's really messy out..."

"God, it's nasty..." Lizzie shivered as she walked out on the porch, pulling the door closed behind her with her free hand.. Matt was standing on the porch waiting, he just looked up towards the gray mass of clouds pressing down on them.

"You've always _did have a way with understatement, Sis."   He told her. _

It was _beyond nasty. Last night's steady rain had turned into a heavy, soaking mist that was just a step or so short of being fog. Streetlights still gleamed orange, the one directly across Orchard Oak Drive kicking an orange flare off shiny-wet macadam. Chill bumps instantly broke out on her arms...It was big time chilly, no, she thought, down right __cold, especially for Aprill. Even with the jacket (Which, admittedly was made far more for style than warmth.) she was shivering in the damp chill._

"Ya know, Lizzie...I _might just take you up on a ride, at least to the bus stop..."_

"Get your jacket an' stuff...hurry up..." She told him absently, digging her keys from her purse. A big, gold 'L'and a plastic encased photo of her and Gordo swung from the keys, Matt put the boom box down long enough to disappear back into the house, tell their mom about the plan change, and reappear pulling on a black Old Navy bomber jacket., hanging on to a dark burgundy back pack. He reached down and grabbed the boom box, then the two of them scrambled town the steps and jogged through the mist to the driveway, where her metallic beige (Chrysler called it something like Autumn Mist Gold) Cherokee Laredo was sitting. They walked around the back of the Jeep, Matt reached for the tailgate, Lizzie just said 'Uh uh...back seat..."

"Ok..." they opened the two rear doors at the same instant, Matt sliding the boom box in, Lizzie tossing her backpack inside.

"Sure you got time Liz?"

"Yeah, I'll just go out Gammon Forest instead of HolyOak..._in!"  She told him, shutting the back door, then opening the driver's door, and climbing behind the wheel. Crush 102's Morning Madhouse filled the Jeep as she started up, Matt climbed in and slammed his door, Lizzie went to pull her seat belt around, breathed something inaudible, quickly pulled her Fruitopia out, putting it in a cup holder, then said 'Ready?'_

"Yeah, go..." Matt told her as he dragged his seat belt around. Lizzie backed out of the driveway, flipping the headlights on as she did. 

_"Man, it's nasty..." she said, flipping the wipers to the fastest intermittent setting. The windshield misted over instantly and totally between swipes, she flipped them to 'low'. "I mean, this __reeks" The Jeep's tires went 'tshhh...tshhh...tshhh' as they slashed through puddles, ahead of them, at Orchard Oak and Gammon Forest, a group of kids could be seen standing at the corner, huddled up close to the honeysuckle covered privacy fence that separated the Woloman's yard from the street. The same fence, Lizzie reflected,  that she, Miranda, and Gordo had huddled against during bad weather when __they had been at HJHS. "Ya know, Matt I really don't mind giving you a ride to school..."_

"That's Ok, Liz..." Matt said absently as he leaned forward, gazing through the windshield intently. She glanced at him just in time to see a smile lift the corners of his mouth, then she looked to see Melina, wearing a bright blue rain jacket, leaning out so she could see. A grin broke over Melina's face as she waved towards the Jeep.

'...An' me thinks it's not _me she's waving at...' Lizzie thought, smiling to herself, as she rolled to a stop. Mat unbuckled and opened the door as Lizzie said "__Out...you're interfering with my edumacation an' stuff..." . _

"It's dweeb-child!...Hi Lizzie, good luck!' Melina exclaimed cheerfully.

"Thanks, 'Lina...don't you guys get wet!"  Lizzie called to her, to get  'I _think you're a little late!'  as Matt dragged his backpack out of the back seat and said 'Ok the party can start now' to his group. From the fence, Matt's best friend Lanny shook his head, his eyes rolled skyward. Matt turned, grabbed the edge of the door, and went to close it, then stuck his head inside for a second. _

"I'm _really looking forward to tormenting you while you're cheering next year you know..." He told her. Lizzie just smiled at him, saying 'Thanks, Matt', recognizing it for the good luck wish it actually was. _

Matt shoved the door closed and scampered to the fence, immediately entering into animated conversation with Melina. Lizzie threw them a wave, yanked the shift back into drive and pulled off as Avril Lavigne belted out 'Complicated'. Lizzie slowed  at the stop sign at Orchard Oak and Gammon Forest, glanced left, then right, then hung a left on Gammon Forest. Ahead of her, the stop sign at Sampson Road glowed in her headlights, a block further up, the stop lights at Hillridge Parkway gleamed at her. She, Gordo, and Miranda had gone in to school off Hillridge yesterday because they had hit McDonalds, but on most mornings, everyone who lived off Sampson Road went in the back way, tuning onto Hillridge Place off of Sampson.

  Lizzie flipped her left blinker on and eased to a stop. Avril finished up and The Back Street Boys started into 'My Way'. Cars blasted by on Sampson, throwing rooster tails of spray up behind them, tires making ripping noises against wet pavement. Lizzie picked up the drink, uncapped it, and took a swallow, glancing at the clock. It was 7:44. I _might  just make it, she thought to herself, recapping the drink and reaching for the cup holder, singing along as she did, head swaying to the music._

"I never wanna _hear ya say..!" She went to put the drink in the cup holder. "I __waaaant it...damn!" as she missed and the drink tumbled to the floor, rolling beneath the passenger seat. Lizzie went to reach over and down for it, only to be pulled up short by the shoulder harness. 'At least the cap's on it...' She thought as she unbuckled her seat belt, bent sideways, then retrieved the drink._

"BEEEEP BEEP BEEEP BEEEEP!!!'" She heard, sitting back up quickly, just in time to see a green and white '92 Ford F-150 rolled through the intersection on Sampson, headed for school. Lizzie popped the bottle back into the cup holder, then laid down on her horn, grinning and waving. Tudge was grinning at her from behind the Ford's wheel,   Miranda was also shooting her best friend a grin as she leaned far enough forward to look around her boyfriend, reaching her hand in front of Larry and fluttering her fingers at Lizzie.

"Least I'm not the _only one running late!" Lizzie giggled, glancing left. Clear. She glanced right. A big pick up, pulling some kind of trailer had just passed the back entrance to University Square Mall...She had __plenty of room._

Lizzie squirted the Jeep out to the left onto Sampson Street, tires slipping and saying 'Sqrrrrrsh!!!' against the wet road. She then did the same thing almost _all sixteen year olds would have done...she decided that they weren't going to beat her by but __so much. Lizzie pressed down hard on the gas, grinning as the speedometer swept around past 35, then 45, finally easing just past 55. She flipped the wipers to high as Larry's tail lights crept closer and closer. The wind whipped around the Jeep as the mist like rain made frying-bacon noises against the windshield._

Somewhere in the friendly competition, Lizzie had forgotten something she_ never forgot.  Her seat belt was still unbuckled._

"_LIZZEEEEEE!!" Miranda Sanchez exclaimed exuberantly as they blew past Lizzie's Jeep. They...along with nearly every teenager in Atlantis...also had 'The Morning Madhouse' on, Larry was tapping time against the rim of the steering wheel with his fingers. The two of them had finished demolishing a cholesterol-laden extravaganza only about ten minutes earlier, making small talk and talking about nothing, and just looking at each other with silly grins on their faces, the way teenage couples have done since the beginning of time, until they__  realized how late __they were running._

.. "Lizzie musta dropped Matt off at the bus stop.."  Miranda said, looking  over at Larry. "She's running almost as late as we are

_ "But, my fair maiden..." Larry began. "Has she got anywhere __near as good an excuse ?" He glanced at his girlfriend, smiling. Miranda had on a purple, black blue and yellow swirl tie dye on with a pair of jeans, her dark hair pulled back, secured into a wide ponytail __by a purple scrunchy.  Larry's hair, as always, was the slightest bit mussed. He had on a green and white Polo shirt with a pair of khakis, and looked about as casually comfortable as it was possible to look. My boyfriend, Miranda reflected affectionately, was a closet __hunk, all those years. "How many pancakes did you put away, anyway...I __know beat me..." Larry continued shaking his head in adoring amazement, then adding "...Of course, you do need energy to do battle with evil alien cheerleaders..." _

"It wasn't even _close to being a battle...She gave up before I even got to remove her teeth for her..." Miranda noted. "And I lost count..."  She told her boyfriend, then gazed upward and sighed contentedly."...Blueberry pancakes should __really be a controlled drug, I mean, I'm, like, __totally addicted to the things, but they are __soooo good!". _

"Naw, _strawberry...come on now..." Larry told his girlfriend, who he heard say '...Here she comes...'_

"...Here she comes..." Miranda had turned in her seat and was watching as the Cherokee's head and fog lights closed on them...Lizzie had gained to within about five car lengths of them in the quarter mile or so since she had turned. Miranda could see her best friend's blond head, see a grin on Lizzie's face." I _know you're not gonna let her beat us..."_

"We have the upper hand, fair maiden, she can't get around us..." Larry answered jovially as they went through Sampson's intersection with HolyOak. Sampson Road had three lanes, one in each direction with a center turn lane. The residents of Hillridge had wanted the state to widen it for _years._

_ Miranda noticed a big dark blue S.U.V. in the northbound lane, it's left turn signal began winking just as they passed it.." She'll just have..." Larry began, then paused. "What's this kid doin'...?" He asked , puzzled,__._

What's _what kid..." Miranda started to ask, turning just as Larry shouted __"What the __hell!?"  at the same instant she was suddenly jerked __hard to the left, bouncing against Larry as he swerved sharply to the right. She caught a glimpse of something...__no, some __one, dark hair, wearing some kind of shiny jacket...whip past, __close, missing the pickup's left side mirror by inches. Larry hissed one of the few curse words Miranda had ever heard him utter as he fought the pickup, his face a study in concentration. She felt her stomach try to perform aerobics as the back end started to swing around, Larry whipped the wheel back to the left, catching the skid, as the pick-up's light rear end tried to snap out on him. Miranda heard rocks clattering from the underside as, for a second, the right wheels went off on to the shoulder._

 Oh ma God, she thought, Lizzie's right behind us...she scrambled back up, looking out of the back window, taking in a sharp breath.

"Oh, God, L_izzie..!"_

"I WANT IT _THAAAAT-A –WAY!!!!" Lizzie crooned at the top of her lungs as, ahead of her, Miranda mugged at her through Larry's back window. '__You guys are gonna be late tooo-oo!' She then exclaimed as if her friends could hear her...not that they were going to be __that late...she was running fifty now, just staying behind Larry, no way she was going to try to pass him. Besides...they passed the Sampson Road entrance to the University Park office park., they were coming up on HolyOak...they were almost..._

The thought died as Lizzie caught a glimpse of something ahead of Tudge and Miranda as they went through the intersection. She tilted her head, looking puzzled, thinking 'What's a kid...'  Lizzie's eyes suddenly snapped open wide as Tudge's pickup swerved hard to the right, squeaking past a kid, maybe Matt's age, riding on the inside of their lane, with barely inches to spare! She saw the truck start to skid, shouted 'Hold it, Larry, _hold it!!' The kid turned to look back at the truck, Lizzie started easing towards the right to give him...."_

Lizzie yelped as the kid, still looking behind him, leaned into a hard left turn, cutting in front of her, two car lengths ahead. He was dark haired, wearing a transparent rain jacket, legs pumping hard as he worked the pedals...

"Oh, God, I've..."

Lizzie sawed the wheel hard to the left. The kid turned, staring at her, bug eyed and white faced, escaping annihilation as the on-rushing right front corner of the Jeep missed him by less than a foot. The Jeep straddling the yellow line between lanes, hurtling into the center turn lane. A Ford Excursion was coming towards her, easing into the center lane, turn signal winking. A thrill of panic twisted into Lizzie's stomach as she realized she was heading straight at the Excursion, which nose-dived as its driver saw Lizzie heading for him.

She yanked the wheel back to the right, hard, at the same instant stamping on the brake. realizing, in the same instant, that that was the absolute _worst thing she could have done. She jerked her foot off of the brake pedal as it were a coiled rattlesnake, but the Jeep was already in a slide, tires screaming in protest._

"Oh, God..."

Lizzie grasped the steering wheel in a death grip as the Jeep slid sideways, straddling the lane divider.  Houses on the west side of Sampson were whipping past the front end in a blur. The Jeep's left rear window exploded inward, sending Safety glass spattering around like wind blown sleet as the left rear of the Cherokee (Mom and Dad are gonna _kill me!) smacked the Excursions let front corner with a deep '__WHUMP!!.  The front of the heavy S.U.V. acted just like a hard-swung baseball bat, snapping the Jeep sideways and slamming her left shoulder and head into the driver's side window as it threw the Jeep into a violent spin. More tiny particles of safety glass blew outward as Lizzie's head shattered it, the impact flashed stars before her eyes. Behind her, Miranda's boom box and her backpack catapulted off of the seat and into the floor, the world became a blur as the Cherokee careened around a full 270 degrees. Lizzie saw the back end of Tudge's truck, then oncoming traffic, then the rapidly receding back end of the Excursion, and finally, as the spin slowed, the pick up that she had seen as she turned off of Gammon Forest onto Sampson...a big, dark gray Dodge Ram crew cab pulling a landscaping trailer loaded with lawn care equipment. The world was suddenly moving in slow motion. The spin had stopped, the Jeep still sliding, backwards now, front end almost all the way around, aimed towards the Excursion that had thrown her into the spin. The big Dodge was headed...."_

"No!..."

Right towards....

"Please..."

Her door...She saw the trucks driver whip the wheel hard to the right, saw the truck start to swerve...if it hadn't been for the trailer...

All four of the trailer's dual wheels locked up, the trailer started hopping, back end bouncing towards the left, jackknifing the front end of the pickup back around.

Tires were screaming against asphalt like banshees. She could see the pickup's wipers flip-flopping back and forth. A big commercial lawn mower teetered, then toppled over on the trailer. The ram's head on the pickup's hood was the size of the long departed HJHS statue-head. The front end of the pickup kept swinging...she was looking into the drivers eyes...he looked so sad, he knew he was going to hit her, oh God, no, please, it's gonna...

The world exploded and tilted and Lizzie felt herself sliding down (Oh, no, my _seatbelt) and a giant sucker punched her in the chest, then crushed it in a vice while another one dropped a house on her leg..._

 Lizzie finally screamed.

Miranda watched in helpless agony as Lizzie swerved when the idiot kid shot across in front of her, her heart went into her throat when she saw the Jeep careen towards the big Ford Excursion. Then the night mare started...she watched as Lizzie yanked the Cherokee back to the right then saw the back end whip around and  the tires shoving water ahead of them as the Jeep went sideways and started sliding. A cloud of something (Glass, Miranda thought to herself) flew as Lizzie's back end caught the front end of  the Excursion.

Oh, God,,,"

Miranda could see the Ram bearing down on Lizzie, watched as the Cherokee spun around until she could see it's back end and right side as it slid backwards, slowing...

"NOOOO.!!"

The Jeep jerked as if in spasm as the big pick-up's left front bit _deep into the Cherokee..._

"Oh, God, _LIZZEEEEEEE...."_

The Jeep tilted to the right spinning further around, then bouncing down on it's wheels as the trailer being pulled by the Dodge bounced and swung until it was almost at a right angle to the road, The pickup shuddered to a stop inches from hitting Lizzie's Jeep a second time..

"..._NOOOOO, LIZZZEEEEEEE!!"_

"Oh God, _LIZZEEEEEE...NOOOOOO, LIZZZEEEEEEE!!"_

Larry Tudgeman stood on the brakes when Miranda screamed, his heart going into his throat and braking into a million pieces as Miranda wailed in anguish. No one should _ever have to hear __anyone they care about make a sound like that. Larry had the Ford locked up, his right leg quivering as he all but stood on the brakes..._

Larreeee, Oh God, get us turned around..." She was hitting him on the shoulder "...Oh, _GOD, we gotta get Lizzie __outa there, Oh, God LIZZEEEE..."_

Miranda's voice collapsed into tears as Larry brought the truck to a sliding stop. Oncoming traffic was slowing; nothing was coming up from behind him. He glanced it the rear view mirror to see a mist and steam obscured jumble of vehicles. Maybe it's not as bad as it looks, he thought, trying not to think about the fact that Lizzie was some where in the middle of all that twisted metal.

"Larry, _please, get us turned around..." Miranda was sobbing great gulping gasps._

"Hang on,' Randa..."  Larry waited for what seemed like centuries, what could have been no more than seconds for oncoming traffic to clear. Hang on honey..." He ruled her close to him, she buried her head in his shoulder, sobbing like a child, Larry finally saw an opening and swung wide, across the turn lane, then back across the south bound lane, the truck jolted as the left front wheel jounced off of then back onto the shoulder. Miranda scrunched up next to him, sobbing. Someone had finished breaking Larry's heart, and was now using a sledgehammer on the pieces. Then he saw Lizzie's Jeep.

"Oh my God..."

Get her out, Larry, Oh God, Get her out..."

"It's steam, baby, it's coming from the other truck..."

"_LIZZEEEEEEE!!..."_

Larry floored it, roaring back towards the wreck..._JESUS, he could see the right side of the Cherokee, but he could also see the left __front...JESUS..._

Two guys got out of the back seat of the big crew cab..._please, let it be steam...it was, thank God for that...Larry stood on the brakes, sliding to a stop twenty feet behind the Cherokee..._

"_LIZZEEEEEEE!!..." Miranda was out of the truck before Larry got stopped good, running through the mist towards the Jeep, desperate to get to her best friend. Larry stamped on the emergency brake and threw the transmission up into park, hen bailed out of the truck, digging in his pocket for his cell phone as he ran towards the Jeep. Miranda was kneeling by the drivers door. Larry saw a blond hear laying against the steering wheel and thought 'Lizzie, please move...' A lump formed in his throat. 'Please...'_


End file.
